CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.—Skanska USA has announced the completion of its expansion and renovation of the University of Virginia (UVA) Medical Center located in Charlottesville. The project, which began construction in June 2015, provides much-needed additional capacity to the facility’s Emergency Department as part of the completion of a 430,000-square foot, 14-story expansion and 90,000 square feet of renovation work.

“The completion of this project provides the UVA Medical Center with additional capacity and upgraded facilities to address the surrounding community’s growing demand for healthcare,” said Greg Peele, executive vice president/general manager for Skanska USA Building in Virginia/North Carolina. “The new state-of-the-art facility with expanded care in the Emergency Department, as well as dedicated intervention areas, better meets the needs of both patients and staff.”

The project—the first major renovation to the Emergency Department in many years—increases the number of treatment rooms from 43 to 80 to better accommodate its more than 60,000 annual visitors. The expansion includes new trauma rooms, behavioral health patient rooms, and a clinical decision-making unit to assess whether patients should be admitted, observed or discharged. The project also expands UVA’s interventional services for surgical patients, including more operating rooms and procedure spaces and expanded preparation, recovery and support spaces. The upgrades also include the addition of a new rooftop helipad.

The expansion comprises a six-story tower built on top of the expanded Emergency Department. The new tower allows for the accommodation of more private patient rooms—a major goal of the project. While the project was conceived years prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, the need for private rooms became particularly important at that time. The project’s flexible design allowed for the 84 ICU rooms that were slated for opening in late summer 2020, to be converted to negative pressure rooms to accommodate the expected surge of COVID-19 patients.

In addition to the three new floors that are already in operation, the forward-thinking project addresses the need for future growth with three additional floors of shell space that can accommodate future expansion needs.

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CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa.—As the U.S. navigates the challenges of COVID-19, bed capacity has been one of the key concerns for healthcare facilities and administrators. Obstacles to meeting potential growing demand are significant, but vary greatly by state. With that issue in mind, Array Advisors has developed a model that analyzes the combined impact of:

• Current cases in each state (as they increase)
• Risk factors such as age and existing conditions
• The state’s existing capacity of ICU and Med/Surg beds

The just-published findings in HealthLeaders are provocative. According to the results, Washington state will likely run out of ICU beds in the next two weeks, while less-populated states such as Vermont (with far fewer existing beds and an older population) still fall squarely in the first tier of risk, just two weeks behind.

Other results indicated that Missouri is lowest on the immediate risk scale, expected to not hit capacity until May 7. April 13 to 23 is projected as a challenging period, as 20 states are forecast to hit maximum ICU capacity during that time.

With a focus on healthcare facility design, consulting and technology, Array offers knowledge-based, data-informed services, including planning, architecture, interior design, transformation and asset advisory services.

Click here for more details and a heat map of the projected ICU Bed Model created by Array Advisors.

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The budget for the project is $107 million, with Laughlin Millea Hillman in Louisville as the architects on the project, and Messer Construction Co. in Louisville serving as the construction manager. Audubon had more than 145,000 patient encounters in 2014, which makes it one of the busiest Norton facilities, and is a large part of what influenced the idea for this expansion, according to statement by the hospital.

The expansion includes a two-story addition that will include 74 new private patient rooms, as well as the renovation of existing patient rooms. “When [patients are] sick or when they’re coming in after surgery, people want to be by themselves and with their family,” said Jon Cooper, chief administrative officer of Norton Audubon Hospital in a recent statement.

Upgrades and expansion of the emergency room, ICU and open-heart unit are underway, and there will be an addition of three new operating rooms. The main operation room is being renovated, as well as a newly renovated lobby. There will be a new entrance to the facility in addition to a pharmacy, gift shop and cafe, with overall aesthetic improvements being made across the entire campus.

“We will continue to meet the needs of the many patients we serve as we work to build upon Norton Audubon Hospital’s long-standing history of caring for our community in a new, state-of-the-art health care facility.”

A new underground parking lot will also be added, with the addition of close to 250 new spaces.

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Baskerville & Son, PC in Richmond, Va., will be the architectural firm on the project. The $4 million expansion will increase the size of the Bedford Memorial Hospital by more than 30 percent, with the emergency department expanding by 1,800 square feet. The completed emergency department will be approximately 7,500 square feet in size and will grow from 10 beds to a 14-bed treatment facility.

The Bedford Memorial emergency department sees approximately 16,000 patients a year, and saw an 11 percent increase in patient traffic between 2014 and 2016, according to Patti Jurkus, CEO of Bedford Memorial Hospital. The renovations and expansion will create more space for physicians to practice in addition to more patient beds, and it will also implement cosmetic changes and infrastructural upgrades to the facility. For this, they will be hiring professional contractors to help with the renovation, for instance, they plan to find a company that specializes in roofing Roanoke based or more local to help with the roof repairs. Additionally, the installation of advanced medical equipment will enable the hospital to better serve its patients with a higher level of care.

The hospital is taking multiple measures to prevent the disruption of patient care during the renovations. The hospital will open a temporary emergency department on the second floor of the building starting on May 18. Additionally, the hospital is increasing its staff at both the temporary and the new facility for the duration of the construction process. Three more registered nurses and multiple physicians have been hired to meet patient needs during this transition time.

This upcoming renovation and expansion of the Bedford Memorial emergency department is just one part of a series of renovations made by the hospital in recent years. Before this project, the medical surgical unit and the ICU underwent renovations as well. “We love our hospital, love our community and want to provide best service possible,” said Jurkus in a recent statement.

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TYLER, Texas — The Christus Trinity Mother Frances Health System in Tyler broke ground April 3 on an expansion of the Christus Mother Frances Hospital. This expansion is a two-part project that includes a new parking garage and a tower that will house an Emergency Care Center, Intensive Care Units and multiple support services, with additional space for future growth.

The 186,452-square-foot tower will have a skywalk leading to the 297,300-square-foot, 850-space parking garage. The combined budget for the two-part project is approximately $92.1 million. This expansion is a coordinated effort between HDR Architects, SSR Engineering and McCarthy Contractors — all based out of Dallas — and Walter P. Moore out of Houston. Construction on the parking garage began in May, projected for completion in Jan. 2018. Construction on the tower is projected to begin after the completion of the parking garage in Feb. 2018, with construction completion scheduled for fall of 2019.

The overall goal of the hospital expansion is twofold, according to Kyle Rutherford, associate vice president for construction services at Christus Trinity Mother Frances Health System. Part one is the construction of the parking garage to alleviate current parking issues for the hospital, and part two is to improve the existing Emergency Care Center (ECC) and ICU capabilities of the hospital. “The ECC will have a linear design that will include all private rooms to improve patient privacy and positively impact infection control,” said Rutherford.

Additionally, the new ECC will bring leading-edge technology, improved patient flow, air flight and ground transportation accessibility to improve wait time and length of stay.

The plans for the expansion include 48 private treatment rooms in the ECC, with dedicated pediatric-friendly rooms and a surge capacity to 52 to allow up to 90,000 visits annually. “The existing ECC was constructed to receive approximately 45,000 visits each year, and we’ve averaged more than 80,000 visits annually for some time now, making us the busiest ECC in the area,” said Rutherford.

The new tower will have six levels, with a range of services in the basement, a state-of-the-art- emergency care center on level one, a 24-bed ICU on both levels three and four, with level five yet undesignated, open for future growth needs. The expansion’s final level includes a rooftop with two helipads that will bring the medical center’s “Flight For Life” program into a new area with direct ECC access, improving accessibility to ECC care.

“The expansion will provide covered parking for all visitors, as well as an ECC that will improve throughput and decrease wait times in a private and comfortable environment, especially for our pediatric patients and their families,” said Rutherford. The ICU design will allow the clinical staff to have bedside clinical documentation, continuous patient observation and a “hospitality room” feel, according to Rutherford. “Support services will be readily available, reducing the distance staff will need to travel, minimizing time away from patients,” said Rutherford. Additionally, interior enhancements of water features, indirect lighting and other planned aesthetic improvements for the hospital were chosen to reduce stress and create a calming and healing environment for patients.

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