Healthcare

Pennsylvania Hospital has built a 22,000-sf expansion in Philadelphia on top of an existing building on the historic campus with no disruption to patient care. The 45-bed Peas Critical Care Complex includes self-contained private patient rooms, an oversized patient transport elevator, consultation rooms for physicians and families, state-of-the-are monitoring systems, secure access, and a custom-designed toilet facility in each patient room. Education and teaching areas for staff were also constructed.

WellStar Kennestone Hospital, part of the five-hospital WellStar Health System, is seeking state approval for a new $93 million patient tower in Marietta, Ga. Sited on property behind the existing hospital campus, the 140-bed tower will house medical/surgical patients, bringing the total hospital bed count to 633. The tower will be connected to the hospital at nearly every floor.

Albert Einstein Medical Center completed the $10 million renovation and expansion of its emergency department in November 2003. Nearly doubling previous emergency space, the project created a 23,000-sf emergency department for the North Philadelphia hospital. The facility features an infrared patient tracking system, 33 private exam rooms, two diagnostic imaging rooms, mobile wireless workstations, portable ultrasound machines, and a high-tech decontamination area.

Carolinas HealthCare System is planning the construction of an $85 million children’s hospital in Charlotte, N.C. Sited at Carolinas Medical Center, the new 230-bed facility will open in 2007.

Stony Brook University Hospital has contracted New York-based Cannon Design to provide planning and design services for a $120-million improvement program. A combination of 150,000 sf of renovation and 150,000 sf of new construction, the project will consolidate and expand Women’s and Children’s Services including neonatal intensive care, as well as triple the capacity of the emergency department and renovate and expand surgical services.

South Nassau Communities Hospital is planning a five-story, 160,000-sf addition at their Oceanside, N.Y., facility. The $58 million program will provide 108 medical/surgical beds, six LDRs, an obstetrics suite with 26 private, post-partum beds, and a 30-bed behavioral health unit, along with a renovated entryway to the ground floor garden reception area. The program also calls for modifications to the building systems, including a new mechanical penthouse, and additional parking for 400 cars.

Kaiser Permanente opened a new 70,000-sf medical clinic in Livermore, Calif. in mid-December 2003. The two-story facility will accommodate basic adult and pediatric services, a pharmacy, women’s health, optical sales, and X-ray/laboratory services. An additional 20,000-sf may be developed at the site in the future.

Eden Medical Center has awarded Skanska USA Building the pre-construction services and construction management contract for its new Castro Valley, Calif., complex. Once the project enters the construction phase, the anticipated construction value for the project is expected to be approximately $180 million. The complex is being built in four phases. Phase I consists of a new three-story, 60,000-sf ambulatory care center/medical office building, including four operating rooms, support space, and physician offices above a 250-stall parking garage. The first phase will be completed in 2006.

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) opened its new $21 million University Doctors Pavilion at its in November 2003. As one of the largest free-standing outpatient facilities in South Jersey, the completely remodeled structure includes a 57,000-sf wing, doubling the clinical space on the Stratford campus. The facility houses a standardized patient laboratory for student evaluation. UMDNJ is planning an additional $11 million in construction projects at the campus, including construction already under way on 20,000 sf to 22,000 sf of research laboratory facilities.

Kaiser Santa Teresa opened its expanded $8 million emergency department in South San Jose on Dec. 3, 2003. Quadrupling the size of the previous ER, the 17,700-sf facility features private rooms, an increase in bed count from 14 to 25, a delivery room, and a decontamination unit. A spine surgery center will open at the hospital in spring of 2004. Kaiser is also planning a $3.6 million expansion of the hospital pharmacy slated for completion by 2005 that will increase the pharmacy’s footprint threefold.

Alta Bates Hospital will launch a consolidated women and infants center at its Berkeley campus in July of 2004. Replacing the Oakland Summit campus maternity ward (which will become a cardiovascular services center) the $15 million project will include new labor, delivery, post-partum and recovery rooms, 90 percent of which will be private. The facility will also house a new women’s resource center. 

Kaiser Permanente opened its new $20-million emergency department and decontamination unit in Walnut Creek in mid-November, 2004. Tripling the size of the existing ER, the expansion increased the number of emergency rooms from 31 to 52, with a cardiac monitor and computer in each room. The 32,000-sf facility includes a small lab station for blood or urine samples which channels the samples through a tube at sixty miles per hour to a lab in the medical center within two seconds. The permanent mass decontamination unit includes eight decontamination showers.

Kaiser Permanente broke ground on November 14, 2003 on a new replacement hospital and central plant at the Panorama City Medical Center in Panorama City, Calif. The 400,000-sf, six-level building will be sited adjacent to the existing facility and will connect to it at the basement level. The project will meet the new seismic requirements for all general acute-care California hospitals imposed by Senate Bill 1953.

Lourdes Health System is constructing a $53 million critical care expansion adjacent to Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden. Slated for completion in 2005, the 120,000-sf building will house four new operating suites, 42 new critical-care beds and 34 new critical-care step-down beds. The expansion will accommodate a new emergency department, larger inpatient rooms, a new and expanded school of nursing, rehabilitative and recuperative facilities for critical-care patients, centralized surgical units, and operating suites.

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has dedicated its new South Tower. The 10-story facility is part of an ongoing $650 million West Philadelphia campus expansion project and will increase the hospital’s bed count from 430 to 381. The cardiac center and cardiac intensive-care unit will expand in the new tower, which will also accommodate oncology, emergency medicine, newborn intensive care, and pediatric intensive care and endocrinology.