Healthcare

Temple University is planning to build a new ambulatory healthcare center in Philadelphia next to its main hospital. The building, designed with the flexibility to potentially grow to 10 floors, will initially consist of two stories and a basement. Current plans include a sub-basement radiation therapy facility with the first floor housing patient registration and other radiation therapy. Traditional GI procedures, short procedure cases and some ambulatory surgery functions will be located on the second floor.

Genesis Health System has simultaneously expansionded inpatient care in Davenport, Iowa, with four additional cath labs and a new freestanding Heart Institute. The new building features a three-story lobby and joins the hospital via a glass-walled walkway. The building, designed by Madison, Wis.-based Flad & Associates and constructed by Estes Company of Davenport, houses state-of-the-art technology for diagnosis and treatment.  The $11-million, 80,000-sf project was completed in fall of 2001.

Raleigh Community Hospital has awarded a $140,000 contract to Commercial Mechanical Inc. to install a web-based heating and cooling system.

Landmark Medical Center’s new 5,215-sf cardiac catheterization lab has been completed by Columbia Construction Co. of North Reading, Pa.  The project was conceived and developed in partnership with Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. has acquired East Point’s South Fulton Medical Center and plans to spend $30-million on capital improvement projects and staffing for the 369-bed hospital. Renovation will occur on every floor, including a new $5- to $10-million emergency department to be built in the next year. Development of a new cardiovascular center is under way, as well as renovation of the women’s services department. $2 million will be spent on heating and ventilation system restoration.

Crawford Long Hospital’s new $270-million hospital and headquarters features a new medical office tower and state-of-the-art facilities. Having received approval from the state two years ago to redevelop its aging campus, Crawford Long and Cousins Properties Inc. have partnered to build one of the largest hospital construction projects ever undertaken in Georgia. The six-story hospital will consolidate outpatient services from several buildings and will house an emergency department triple the size of current facilities. Physicians will be located directly above the patients they serve.

Ground was broken on Inova Fairfax Hospital's new heart institute in earlly April. The $122-million, 280,000-sf Falls Church facility will be the first center devoted to treating cardiac disease in the Washington area. The four-story facility will be built by contractor Turner Construction and is slated for completion in spring of 2004. The 656-bed hospital will add an additional 156 beds, increase its cardiac operating room count from four to six, and gain additional electrophysiology and catheterization lab facilities.

Sacred Heart Medical Center, part of the PeaceHealth network, has awarded the Portland office of Turner Construction Company the contract to provide pre-construction and general contracting services for a $280-million replacement hospital in Springfield, Ore. Pre-construction begins immediately and construction is scheduled for completion in 2007.

Schepens Eye Institute of Boston’s extensive renovation of its main entrance and lobby area was recently completed by Wise Construction Corp. of Winchester, Mass. Payette Associates provided design services for the project.

The University of Texas Medical Branch is establishing a Galveston telehealth research center slated to open in late April. The SBC Foundation, part of SBC Communications, awarded the medical complex a $1-million donation. The facility is the first of its kind in the nation.

In October, Bethesda-based Dental Benefits Providers is relocating its headquarters and approximately 300 workers to 75,000 sf in Rockville's new King Farm Development. The health care company is a division of United Healthcare of Minneapolis, one of the largest dental benefit providers in the nation. 

A new 143,000-sf addition to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital in Roanoke, Virginia, will expand the hospital's surgery and cardiovascular services while helping to organize existing floors more efficiently. The expansion to the facility's 10-story South Pavilion building will add a total of 126 beds to the hospital's critical care and progressive care units. Expected completion date for the project is fall 2003. Designed by HOK of St. Louis, the expansion's construction budget is $30,800,000.

Kinetic Concepts Inc. (KCI) has relocated its national call center, credit, billing, accounts receivable and third-party payer operations to the 58,000-sf KCI Advantage Center at the University Park Tech Center IV in San Antonio. The health care products maker previously housed these operations in 28,000 sf adjacent to the KCI Tower across the street. KCI's 290 employees were relocated in early March to the new facility, which was dedicated on April 5.

Caritas Good Samaritan Medical Center has selected RDK Engineers of Andover and Boston to expand and renovate its Brockton hospital. The $10-million, 50,945-sf project will include a two-story, 8,720-sf addition in front of the hospital and extensive renovations to ground and first floor levels of the existing hospital. Completion is anticipated in June 2003.

The National Center for Children's Rehabilitation, created in partnership by the Children's National Medical Center and the National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH), is scheduled to open July 1 in Washington. The top floor of NRH's three-story northwest D.C. facility will be renovated to create 15,000- to 25,000-sf of space housing an initial 10 beds to care for patients age 12 to 18.