Ground will soon be broken on $15 million expansion project that will add more than 50 beds.
On July 4, 2003, Frankford Hospital celebrates 100 years of serving the health care needs of the Northeast Philadelphia community.
As the Hospital reaches this milestone, it is taking the opportunity to reflect on the successes of the past century and plan
for the future by expanding its Torresdale Campus, located at Knights and Red Lion Roads in Northeast Philadelphia.
“From our earliest days, the mission of Frankford Hospital has been to provide the highest quality medical care available
to our patients,” explains Roy Powell, Frankford’s President and CEO. “Throughout our history we have grown along with the
Northeast Philadelphia and Bucks County communities, expanding and adding services in response to patient need. Now, we are
fortunate to be planning further expansion at a time when other institutions are struggling in a difficult environment.”
With patient demand for services continuously increasing at the Torresdale Campus over the past five years, Frankford implemented
several initiatives to increase the capacity within the existing facility. These efforts included building additional observation
beds, doubling the size of the Emergency Department and selectively relocating services to its Bucks County Campus. The capacity
gained by these efforts was short lived, however; as clinical space made available through each initiative was fully occupied
within 30 days.
“The need for additional capacity at Torresdale has been underscored by physicians within the community repeatedly expressing
displeasure over having to send their patients to other community hospitals because beds are routinely unavailable,” says
Geoffrey Braden, M.D., President of Frankford’s Medical Staff. “The construction of a new facility is necessary in order to
realistically meet the needs of the medical staff as well as the community.”
As a result, the Hospital will soon break ground on an estimated $15 million expansion project which includes construction
of a new three-story building and renovation of various treatment areas. The new building will provide space for 51 new monitored
acute beds, a designated Stroke/Neurosurgery Unit and additional space for Torresdale’s rapidly growing Cardiology Program.
The project, expected to be completed by the Fall of 2004, is being funded in large part by the Frankford Hospital Foundation.
Governed by a board of 15 area community and business leaders, the Foundation is a sole purpose organization that awards grants
to Frankford Hospital for such purposes as improvement projects, clinical equipment, and facility upgrades. In recent years,
the Foundation has funded the expansion of the Torresdale Emergency Department, equipment upgrades to support the growth of
the cardiac catheterization/electrophysiology program and a new clinical information system. The Foundation is able to support
these projects through charitable gifts from community members and donors, which include memorial and living gifts given in
memory of or in honor of a loved one, in-kind gifts, grants and bequests.
“The Foundation is pleased to support the Torresdale Campus expansion project,” says Carl F. Gregory, President of the Frankford
Hospital Foundation. “It is always rewarding to make both a personal and financial investment in an effort that will help
to continue to serve our patients with leading edge medical care. This is truly a unique opportunity to give back to our local
community that has supported us for the past century.”
Frankford’s leadership is already looking toward Torresdale’s growth potential beyond the current expansion project. “If our
patient volumes continue to grow at their current rate, we anticipate being able to continue to grow the Torresdale facility
with physical plant expansions that will bring with them additional beds and services for the community,” says Mr. Powell.
In the meantime, a groundbreaking ceremony is being planned for the current Torresdale expansion project in the coming months.
“The groundbreaking at Torresdale will serve as the first chapter in the story of Frankford’s second century of service,”
says Mr. Gregory.
A Brief History of Frankford Hospital . . .
At the turn of the 20th Century, the United States was in the midst of a typhoid epidemic that was having a severe and fatal
impact on the Northeast Philadelphia community. During that time, Dr. Joseph Ball, a Northeast Philadelphia physician, could
not find a hospital in the city that had an available bed to admit a patient with typhoid fever. Dr. Ball quickly learned
that other local physicians were having their patients turned away, so he led an effort to establish a community hospital
to provide quality medical care to his neighbors. Named after the neighborhood it would first serve, Frankford Hospital opened
its doors on July 4, 1903, not far from the present day location of its Frankford Campus at Frankford Avenue and Wakeling
Street. The first patient treated the day Frankford opened its doors 100 Independence Days ago was fittingly a small boy with
a burn on his hand caused by a firecracker.
Through the years, the Northeast Philadelphia community continued to grow and Frankford Hospital expanded upon Dr. Ball’s
founding vision by introducing many new services to better meet the health needs of the growing population. As the Hospital’s
service area grew and flourished, Frankford responded by opening its second location, Frankford Hospital – Torresdale, at
Knights and Red Lion Roads in the Far Northeast in 1977. As many families began relocating to Bucks County and the population
continued to grow, Frankford once again responded by acquiring Delaware Valley Medical Center in 1999 and turning it into
its third location, Frankford Hospital – Bucks County, at 380 North Oxford Valley Road in Langhorne, Pa.
A founding member of the Jefferson Health System, Frankford offers patients access to University-level care in a community
medical setting. Along with an extensive primary care network and three outpatient centers, Frankford offers a wide variety
of specialty services including Cardiac Surgery, Electrophysiology, Invasive Cardiology, Neurosurgery, Obstetrics/Gynecology,
Oncology and Orthopedics.
Published: 7-2-2003
