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Kaiser Permanente Opens New Advanced Care Center

ATLANTA — Following a 10-month renovation, the Kaiser Permanente Southwood Comprehensive Center has doubled health care space for patients. The two-story, $45 million project brought the facility to 113,000 square feet increasing space for the 24/7 advanced care center.

“KP’s mission is spreading good health through our communities,” said Kerry Kohnen, president of Kaiser Permanente Georgia, in a statement. “Southwood now has a state-of-the-art space for new specialties; plus, our emergency-trained staff will now be able to offer urgent care to this area.”

The addition now houses the Acute Care Center, Clinical Decision Unit, procedure suite, sterile processing, pain medicine, orthopedics, podiatry, urology, gastroenterology, surgery, optometry, ophthalmology, pulmonology, rheumatology and endoscopy.

“The Advanced Care Center allows us to provide coordinated care to our members 24 hours a day, seven days a week outside of a hospital setting,” said Michael Doherty, executive medical director of Kaiser Permanente of Georgia, in a statement. “Our Southwood Comprehensive Medical Center saves time and money, while enabling us to deliver high-level care through doctors who are board certified in emergency medicine and have access to our members’ complete medical records.”

Gresham, Smith and Partners, which holds offices in Alpharetta, Ga., designed the expansion while St. Louis-headquartered McCarthy Building Companies headed construction.

The project, which is aiming for LEED Silver certification, used BIM 360 technology and installed prefabricated materials for all the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems. The use of building technologies allowed the project to be completed two months ahead of schedule.

“This building is a great example of how today’s technology really enhances the building process,” said Kevin Kuntz, McCarthy Southeast Division president, in a statement. “Executing a short construction schedule is always good news received by clients and building partners alike. In this case, it allows people access to new medical services just a little bit sooner — and that’s a great thing we are proud to help provide.”

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Hoag Hospital Irvine Earns LEED Silver Certification

IRVINE, Calif. — Two months after Hoag Hospital Irvine reopened its renovated hospital and emergency room, Hoag become one of the first hospitals in California to achieve LEED Silver Certification.

The $85 million, 244,000 square foot renovation by architectural firm Taylor, is an example of the modernization of an aging facility meets the demands for advanced technology and new medical programming, as well as being eco-friendly.

Some of the sustainable features that will reduce overall energy and water consumption include energy-efficient lighting fixtures, low-flow toilets, forest-certified wood products, self-cleaning porcelain floor tiles and the recycling of 75 percent of the construction demolition.

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Wishard Hospital Construction

INDIANAPOLIS — When The New Wishard Hospital opens its doors to patients and the public near the end of 2013, the community will breathe easier knowing it can receive cutting-edge treatment in a $754 million green facility built by a diverse group of laborers, contractors and subcontractors.

The New Wishard will replace Wishard Hospital, a 353-bed facility that served more than 15,000 adult patients in 2008. The existing hospital suffers from an aging campus and outdated equipment and facilities not designed to handle the current patient load.

In constructing The New Wishard, developers made a commitment to both building green and employing minority workmen. Hospital officials announced earlier this year they are aiming for the USGBC’s LEED Silver rating in The New Wishard, which would make it the only green hospital of its kind in Indiana.

Additionally, The New Wishard’s operating firm, Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County, will hire a mix of 15.6 percent minority-owned, 8 percent women-owned and 3.2 percent veteran-owned businesses, as well as firms that don’t fall under those categories, to build the 1.2-million-square-foot hospital.

In March, Wishard officials awarded an initial bid package of $27.5 million to Indianapolis-based FA Wilhelm Construction Co. Inc. to construct a 2,400-car parking garage and site utilities. Bidding for the construction of the new hospital, an ambulatory care building and energy plant are expected to begin this spring and summer and be awarded this fall. Bidding for a proposed faculty and research building will begin in the fall 2011.

“We have received very favorable results in the bond market so far, as well as favorable material and construction costs — in part as a result of our considerable advanced planning and preparation — and we hope this will result in overall savings on the total cost,” says Todd Harper, spokesman for Wishard Hospital.

“However, just as market conditions created this advantage, changes in the market could affect future processes, so we are not calculating the current advantage as a savings on the total cost,” Harper says.

Situated on a 37-acre site near the western end of the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus, The New Wishard Hospital will be built on a location left vacant by the demolition of the Larue D. Carter Psychiatric Hospital. The new hospital will house 315 inpatient beds, 18 operating rooms, 12 labor and delivery rooms, a 90-bed treatment room emergency department, a 20-bed clinical decision unit, four interventional labs and more than 200 ambulatory clinic exam rooms.

Marion County voters approved construction of The New Wishard Hospital last November, when 85 percent of voters supported a measure to build the hospital. The project will create 4,400 jobs in the Indianapolis area.

“The New Wishard Hospital that the voters of Marion County overwhelmingly approved will be a beacon of health and wellness for Indianapolis,” says Matthew Gutwein, president and CEO of Health & Hospital Corporation. “Wishard is committed to exercising environmental stewardship so that Indianapolis becomes a more livable and sustainable city.”

The New Wishard’s green credits under the LEED system including reusing an old urban site and achieving savings through efficient water and energy systems.

“In reusing an old urban site, Wishard will avoid disturbing undeveloped land, farmland or wetlands,” says Harper. “The New Wishard will be located near residences, basic services and public transportation, minimizing related travel emissions, and plans call for the site to include bike racks, showers for employees and designated parking for alternative fuel vehicles and high-occupancy car pool and van pool vehicles.”

Other design elements, including green and white roofs, efficient plumbing fixtures, self-sustaining rainwater irrigation systems for landscaping and a native plant landscape, will contribute to a proposed energy optimization plan that will create at least a 14 percent energy savings, Harper says. The New Wishard will also utilize outside air delivery and ventilation systems and a hospital-wide recycling program to achieve greater sustainability.

The design team for The New Wishard Hospital includes A2SO4 Architecture of Indianapolis; Blackburn Architects of San Francisco; Circle Design Group of Indianapolis; international construction company Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, and other engineering and architectural firms.

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Ft. Belvoir Replacement Hospital Nears Completion

FORT BELVOIR, Va. — Construction of an $807 million, 1.3 million-square-foot military hospital that will eventually replace DeWitt Army Community Hospital at Fort Belvoir has passed the two-thirds completion mark.

Scheduled to open in spring 2011, the 120-bed hospital is being built through an integrated design/bid/build procurement process. When completed, the facility will feature a combination of energy-efficient systems and therapeutic healing spaces for active-duty service members, retirees and their families.

Designers are targeting LEED Silver Certification status for Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, on which construction began in late 2007.

The project stems from a base realignment and closure directive to integrate many of the medical operations in the Washington, D.C., area onto two major campuses at Fort Belvoir and Bethesda, Md. The Fort Belvoir hospital will take over some of the services now offered at Walter Reed Army Medical Center; the rest will be rolled into the new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Designed to flank a centralized inpatient unit, the Fort Belvoir hospital will house a 10-bed intensive care unit, a 10-bed behavioral health inpatient unit, 10 operating rooms, a cancer center, 30 ER exam rooms, a 12-window pharmacy, and numerous administrative, clinical and diagnostic offices and labs. The hospital’s main seven-story building will sit between outpatient facilities comprising more than 25 primary and specialty care clinics and parking garages on either side. The hospital grounds will also include a helipad, ambulance shelter, and dedicated central energy plant.

The swooped roofs of the hospital will collect rainwater into an irrigation system for a healing garden that patients can sit in or view from all waiting rooms. A green roof over the central portion of the hospital will reduce water runoff, as will a system of bioswales on the ground.

Architects used evidence-based health care design to create a therapeutic, family-centered facility. In addition to a site plan that integrates fully and partially enclosed outdoor courtyards, the hospital is divided into five nature-themed sections — river, eagle, sunrise, oak and meadow. Half of the hospital’s rooms face east and half face west, ensuring that patients are provided either morning or afternoon sunlight. Each room will have independent controls for temperature, lights and other patient amenities.

Kiosks throughout the hospital and parking garages will provide directions and intercoms so that patients can notify doctors of their arrival. The project also includes surface and garage parking for 2,600 vehicles.

Alexandria, Va.-based HDR, Fairfax, Va.-headquartered Dewberry and the US Army Corps of Engineers designed the hospital. Turner-Gilbane, a joint venture of Arlington, Va.-based Turner Construction Company and the Laurel, Md., office of Gilbane Building Company, is building the facility.

Ultimately, the medical campus will house several facilities, including a 248,000-square-foot transition complex, a 50,000-square-foot headquarters for the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command, a 23,000-square-foot dental clinic and a 37,000-square-foot child development center.

The $76 million transition facility will include room for 276 wounded troops, as well as a soldier and family assistance center and company and battalion headquarters.

Learn more about the project at http://www.belvoirnewvision.com.

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