R. I. Hospital charts $70 million facelift.

Rhode Island Hospital president and chief executive officer, Dr. Joseph F. Amaral takes a matriarchal view of his institution.

Over the years the hospital has doled out hundreds of millions of dollars in care for the state's indigent, implemented innovative new procedures and technologies and nurtured several generations of new doctors through its strong ties with Brown University.

"Now it's time to take care of Mom," Amaral said. And Mom's going to get a major facelift.

The hospital plans to pour about $70 million into capital-improvement projects over the next three years, including a new emergency department that will be more than twice the size of the existing emergency department.

Plans also call for a new $20 million cancer center in the hospital's ambulatory patient care (APC) building and a $5 million renovation of the Coro Building on Point Street, which will add research and outpatient services there. The hospital's Cooperative Care Center also will get $5 million in renovations.

"We've got the people and the programs, but we don't have the …