Health Care: Sutter breaks ground for hospital

 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.”

The Queen said it was one of the first hospitals in California to offer the da Vinci Robotically Assisted Surgery System, which helps surgeons with “minimally invasive techniques” that can lead to quicker patient recovery, less pain, less blood loss and a lower risk of infection, among numerous other advantages for surgeons.

The seminar is Wednesday, Sept. 29 at 5:30 p.m. at the Napa Valley Marriott Hotel & Spa. Interested parties can call 1-877-783-3654 to register. Space is limited.***

[caption id="attachment_25248" align="alignleft" width="108" caption="Bill Black"][/caption]

Sutter Pacific Medical Foundation announced Bill Black as the new associate chief medical officer for the nonprofit organization that operates in San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma and Lake counties as well as in Northern California and Nevada through outreach clinics.

Dr. Black, an internal medicine specialist, will assist the foundation with physician relations and clinic operations, including physician recruitment, medical practice oversight and physician contracting.

Previously, Dr. Black served as division head of the Palo Alto Foundation Medical Group, where he oversaw clinical operations, enterprise integration, capital planning and quality, among other duties. He is president of the San Mateo County Medical Association and holds degrees in internal medicine from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

The foundation also recently added three new doctors to its growing physician group, which now has more than 230 physicians offering primary, specialty and complex medical care.

[caption id="attachment_25251" align="alignright" width="311" caption="Dr. Afshin Ashfael, Dr. David Parsons, Dr. Lawrence Milne"][/caption]

The newest physicians are part of the Lake County network. They are:

Dr. Afshin Ashfaei, who practices internal medicine;

Dr. David Parsons, who is board-certified in family medicine;

And Dr. Lawrence Milne, a board-certified general surgeon.***

Napa County Public Health is offering free seasonal flu vaccines to anyone over the age of three. Whooping cough (tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis) vaccine will also be available upon request for anyone over the age of seven at the following locations:St. Helena Elementary, on Monday, Sept. 27, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.Senior Multi-Use Center in American Canyon on Monday, Oct. 4, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.Berryessa Senior Center on Monday, Oct. 4, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.Angwin Fire Department, on Wednesday, Oct. 6, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.Calistoga Fairgrounds, Butler Pavilion, Monday, Oct. 11, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.McPherson Elementary in Napa, Wednesday, Oct. 13, from 12:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.Napa Elks Lodge, Monday, Oct. 18, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

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Submit items for this column to Dan Verel at dverel@busjrnl.com, 707-521-4257 or fax 707-521-5292.

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