From Marin to Mendocino, hospital projects underway represent at least a combined $550 million in construction spending.
And it's a number that will double when one of the largest projects -- the $500 million rebuild of Marin General Hospital -- gets off the ground as planned.
While the Marin Healthcare District moves forward with a general obligation bond of $350 million this November that would permit construction on the rebuild, a number of high-profile hospital rebuilds or upgrades are well underway throughout the region.
[caption id="attachment_73048" align="alignright" width="350"] An aerial view, from March, of Sutter Health's forthcoming $284 million hospital[/caption]
Chief among them is the brand-new Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa, a $284 million, 82-bed hospital that will replace Sutter Health's aging, seismically unfit Chanate Road facility. The new hospital in northern Santa Rosa is on budget and on schedule for completion in June 2014. Construction began in 2010 after a nearly decade-long battle over its location was finally settled with the county. It will officially open to the public in October 2014, in order to train staff and physicians at the new hospital.
[caption id="attachment_73049" align="alignleft" width="324"] Queen of Valley in Napa will open its $130 million Herman Family Pavilion, which will include a brand-new intensive care unit.[/caption]
The next largest project is the $130 million Herman Family Pavilion at Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa, which will open next month. Underway since early 2011 after several delays, the three-story, 72,000 square-foot project moves the hospital's six-room surgery center into a newly constructed wing of the hospital. It also expanded its intensive care unit from 16 to 20 beds and includes Napa's first hybrid operating suite.
On the northern end of Napa Valley, Roseville-based Adventist Health is in the process of giving St. Helena Hospital Napa Valley a $20 million upgrade, which includes added capacity and much-need renovations to the facility that was originally constructed in 1948. Upgrades include improvements to the orthopedics unit, a mental health unit and the medical-surgery unit, the family birthing unit, the 12-bed ICU and the post critical care unit.
Adventist Health also recently announced that Ukiah Valley Medical Center is now undergoing a $41 million expansion and upgrade to its emergency department and ICU. As part of its expansion, the 78-bed Ukiah hospital is seeking to advance its trauma designation from level lV to level lll, which requires dedicated trauma rooms.
[caption id="attachment_73050" align="alignright" width="315"] Sonoma Valley Hospital's $43 million upgrade will include a revamped and modernized emergency department.[/caption]
Back in Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley Hospital is nearing completion on its $43 million seismic upgrade, which includes a two-story addition that will feature a new 8,000-square-foot emergency department that increases from five to nine beds on the first floor and an 8,000-square-foot operating suite on the second floor. Completion is expected by the end of this year.
Funded primarily through a $32 million GO bond passed by Sonoma Valley voters, the price of the upgrade edged up from the original $39 million price tag after the district hospital was able to raise additional funding for the project and add more features, chief executive officer Kelly Mather said.
Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, another St. Joseph Health-owned hospital, is in the process of revamping its emergency department -- the region's busiest and only level ll trauma center -- to the tune of $15 million. The renovation will add approximately 50 percent more capacity to the ED and will bring to the total number of beds to 26 private rooms from 19, while a 27th bed will be reserved for triaging. The department will increase by about 4,200 square feet, and each room in the ED will increase from about 80 square feet to 120 square feet. Hospital officials anticipate the expansion to be completed by early 2014.
In Marin County, another upgrade is underway at the 60-bed Kentfield Rehabilitation and Specialty Hospital. The $12 million rehab to the hospital, constructed in 1964, was initially pegged at $9 million, but edged up after running into a three-month delay stemming from unknown structural issues, according to Ann Gors, chief executive officer.
Renovations include mostly interior fixes to patient rooms, new medical equipment, a new nurse call system, expanded pharmacy services and the implementation of electronic health records, which will be the final phase of the project. Completion is expected around June 2014.
Santa Rosa will also soon be home to the Aurora Behavioral Healthcare, a 93-bed inpatient, acute-care psychiatric hospital expected to open within the next month. The new facility, near the intersection of Fulton and Guernville roads, will replace an inpatient psych hospital formerly operated by St. Joseph Health System–Sonoma County that closed in 2008, which created a void of mental health providers in Sonoma County.
Corona-based Signature Healthcare has invested at least $4 million in the Santa Rosa facility, although that figure is likely to increase due to numerous delays.
Lastly, Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center is upgrading the facade on the original hospital. The project includes cosmetic upgrades and new windows and installation. The new exterior panels will match a newly constructed hospital wing that was completed in 2010. A cost figure was not made available on the project, which is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2014.
