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Five-story Kaiser tower on schedule

BUILDING TO INCLUDE 78 ADDITIONAL BEDS, EXPANDED EMERGENCY

SANTA ROSA – Construction on Kaiser Permanente’s new five-story medical tower and hospital wing reached a milestone last week as the steel framing went up on time despite earlier setbacks.

The project, which has been in planning for at least four years, broke ground late last year after officials moved up the start-date, originally scheduled for this spring.

Following the demolition and relocation of a two-story engineering building, preparations for the new tower began with excavation of a quarter-acre pit for the foundation supported by long piers extending about 60 feet in the ground.

Just as the giant hole was near completion in November, a pipe nearby burst unexpectedly and dumped about 400,000 gallons of water into the construction zone and other areas of the hospital. Though the facility is still in the process of recovering from the flood, four months later the event does not appear to have impacted timing, even after heavy rains late last year.

“I think it may have delayed things a couple of weeks, but the contractor quickly got more manpower out there, and really we are still running right on time,” said Linda Challoner, Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center director of capital strategic planning.

Ms. Challoner said in previous reports that construction was sped up last year to prepare for when Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa said it would close. However, even after Sutter’s recently announced plans to stay in the county, Ms. Challoner said she does not expect Kaiser’s need for the expansion to change.

“We are continuing to grow in membership, and we’ve had these plans for sometime,” she said. “I don’t expect anything to change now.”

The new building will increase the hospital’s capacity by 78 beds, bringing the total to 171 when the space opens sometime in the fall or early winter of 2010. Of the new beds, 39 will be medical surgical beds, 10 intensive care unit beds and seven post-partum beds.

The current emergency department will also close and be relocated to the new site, which will have 34 beds – twice as many as the current facility. The new building will also house the hospital’s first interventional radiology department and catherization lab.

The fifth floor of the tower will be left vacant until further space is needed. If it is built out, it could accommodate about 24 additional beds. The hospital site was also constructed in such a way to allow the addition of a second tower, but officials said that is dependent on need and would not likely occur anytime soon.

Sacramento-based Harbison-Mahony-Higgins Builders Inc. is the contractor for the project, and TLCD Architecture of Santa Rosa created the design.

A group of Kaiser executives will begin transitional planning for the tower April 1, which includes planning for new hospital staff. Ms. Challoner said a large group of new physicians and nurses will be needed, but the exact number will be figured in the planning process.

The new hospital wing and tower is approximately 146,440 square feet and will cost about $233 million together with the recently completed medical office building on Old Redwood Highway.

The 91,000-square-foot medical office building contains general doctors offices, outpatient surgery and services, imaging and occupational health therapy. Providers moved services to the building in January, but the company will host a private grand opening celebration later next month.

Last year, Kaiser Permanente opened five hospitals after not opening any for 10 years, bringing the total occupied real estate to 51 million square feet in the United States. Also, the company already has more than 5,000 upgrade, expansion and repair projects in the works this year, including another eight hospitals or expansions.