Also: Kaiser prepares to unveil tower; Napa’s Queen in expansion
Sutter Health last week celebrated the formal groundbreaking for its new, $284 million hospital in Santa Rosa that will replace the seismically unsafe Chanate facility.
After nine years of submitting and resubmitting plans to Sonoma County officials and searching for the best location, the Sacramento-based hospital group was given final approval in August, when it was determined by the Board of Supervisors and the Sonoma County Health and Human Services Department that land use permits, the environmental impact review and health access agreements would be met by Sutter’s latest plan.
The new hospital will have 82 beds with the possibility of a 27-bed expansion and will be built next to the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts just north of Santa Rosa.
[caption id="attachment_25241" align="alignright" width="346" caption="Sutter Health celebrated at a formal groundbreaking for its new $284 million hospital in Santa Rosa. Pictured: Supervisor Paul Kelley, Sutter Health Senior VP Mike Cohill and Sutter Health West Bay Region President Martin Brotman"][/caption]
The first elements of construction, which is expected to take four years, will include clearing vegetation, grading and soil surcharging. The site will include 80,000 square feet of medical office buildings. Sutter said the hospital is expected to open in the fall of 2014.
Sutter, the county’s fourth-largest employer, also said it has spent more than $3 million on design, environmental review and entitlement processes that will be conducted by local companies. The county will also benefit financially, Sutter said, with $2.5 million going toward local government during the entitlement process. All told, $5.5 million will be paid to the county in mitigation fees by the time construction is completed, Sutter estimates.
“We are building a hospital designed for 21st century patient care that will additionally provide ongoing economic stimulus far into the future,” said Mike Purvis, chief administrative officer for Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa.***
[caption id="attachment_25250" align="alignright" width="270" caption="New Kaiser Permanente five-story hospital wing"][/caption]
Kaiser Permanente Medical Center of Santa Rosa is poised to open its new, five-story hospital wing on Oct. 1, marking the completion of a $233 million expansion that began in 2003.
The hospital’s new wing will double the size of the emergency department and will include a new turnaround for ambulances. The expansion, constructed by Sacramento-based contractor Harbison-Mahony-Higgins Builders Inc. and designed by Santa Rosa’s TLCD Architecture, will also increase the number of beds in the emergency department from 17 to 34 and the intensive care unit beds from 10 to 20.
All told, the 146,400-square-foot project will increase licensed beds from 117 to 167. The fifth floor of the new tower can accommodate an expansion of 24 beds, if needed.***
Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa says construction is under way on a 72,000-square-foot expansion that will enhance patient care by increasing intensive care unit beds by 20 percent.
Upon completion, its six-room surgery department will move from the west building into the new surgical pavilion.
The expanded facility is also poised to become LEED certified for its environmentally conscious efforts.
While the 191-bed acute care hospital looks forward to its expansion, it also recently announced that it will host a seminar called “Robotically Assisted Surgery – The Wave of the Future.”
