The $71 million acute-care medical center, the first in Pearland, is located on a 48-acre site, and its 144,000 square feet houses 33patient beds. The medical center was built to expand patient services in Pearland and its surrounding communities. Hospital officials at Houston-based HCA Gulf Coast Division wanted to boost services in the obstetrical, surgical and cardiac areas.

The new medical center features new surgical suites, medical/surgical beds, intensive care beds and a 24-hour emergency department. It also includes imaging services such as magnetic resonance imaging, computerized tomography, a catheterization lab, echocardiogram testing and nuclear medicine modalities. A new women’s services department provides digital mammography, labor and delivery suites, C-section operating rooms and a newborn nursery.

Nashville, Tenn.-based Gould Turner Group served as the project’s architect and Skanska, based in Sweden, oversaw the construction.

“For many reasons, the ribbon-cutting will mark a major milestone for Pearland,” said Kevin Fuller, chairman of the Pearland Medical Center Board of Trustees, in a statement. “Not only will Pearland Medical Center provide quality, life-saving services; it will create jobs and economic opportunities to benefit our residents.”

Pearland is the fastest-growing community in the Houston area. The city’s population was projected to increase from 91,252 in 2010 to 123,119 in 2020 and to 141,993 in 2035, according to the Houston-Galveston Area Council’s 2013 Population and Employment Forecast. The medical center will employ about 250 full-time staff members and more than 150 physicians.

HCA-affiliated facilities in the Gulf Coast Division include 12 hospitals, eight ambulatory surgery centers, 14 diagnostic imaging facilities, eight off-campus emergency centers and a regional transfer center. The HCA Gulf Coast Division will be offering a regional transfer center that provides ground and air transportation to and from any other HCA Gulf Coast Division-affiliated hospital. That service includes transfers to specialized facilities such as Clear Lake Regional Medical Center in Webster, Texas; Houston-based Woman’s Hospital of Texas; and Houston-based Texas Orthopedic Hospital.

HCA — the parent organization for HCA Gulf Coast — is striving for sustainability in Pearland, as well as its other facility currently being built: Alliance Hospital in Dallas, which is managed by HCA North Texas. Alliance Hospital in Dallas is a three-story, $71 million hospital that is expected to open in early 2015.

Both facilities will be seeking LEED Silver certification. Fixtures in both facilities will decrease water usage by 40 percent; 95percent of construction waste will be diverted away from landfills; and wood materials used to build both facilities will all be from certified sustainable resources.

“Hospitals are an essential part of a community. They help save and improve lives, but in order for them to keep operating and providing the services their community needs, hospitals require a lot of energy which can have negative impacts on the environment,” said Greg Stein, HCA’s VP of design and construction, in a statement.

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“We always treat our projects as if it’s our family on the opposite side of the wall. We really stress that philosophy,” said Joshua Rhodes, project manager with JE Dunn.

Phase I included updates to 33 private patient rooms, the nurses’ station and hallways and also incorporated LINC technology, which delivers access to a patient’s clinical information, offering the opportunity to update medical records, verify medication and review the patient’s last scans and test results, according to Wesley.

The sensitive nature of the project was well suited given JE Dunn’s core values. JE Dunn has a health care training program, which every person hired must complete, that hones in on the philosophy of visualizing one’s family in that particular health care facility. Everyone that steps foot on a JE Dunn job has bought into this philosophy, Rhodes said.

“Working in a women’s center is a different dynamic,” Rhodes said. “If we have some major complaints going on or if we are impacting that environment, we will shut down. That goes hand in hand with our philosophy that if it was my wife in the room, I would want to make sure she was in the best environment possible.”

The timeline on the project needed to be quick because the construction team required the take over of patient rooms in order to complete the project.

“We were on a very strict timeline to get in and get out so they could have those rooms back and use them for their intended use,” Rhodes said.

To expedite construction, the construction team experimented with prefabricated bathrooms and head walls. The construction team prefabricated 12 head walls and decided to panelize the bathrooms. Given the conditions of the construction site, the panelized bathrooms did not fit the project.

“Panelizing the bathroom’s did not work out in a renovation setting,” Rhodes said. “You have a bunch of existing conditions in a hospital that lends itself to making prefab a good option because when we do prefab and we are modeling, we assume everything is consistent and repetitive. When in a renovation like this one with an 80-year-old building, nothing is the same from room to room.”

However, the prefabricated head walls were very beneficial to the project, Rhodes said. Subcontractors are currently prefabricating 17 walls, and 34 head walls are being purchased in order to compare if buying or prefabricating head walls is the more cost-effective decision for a health care renovation project.

The second phase of construction will include renovations of the third, fourth and fifth floors, and the final phase will include an additional postpartum room and outpatient surgery rooms. The renovation is scheduled for completion in December 2014.

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“This is an exciting milestone for Sierra Vista. The new hospital will expand health care options for the community, bring expanded economic opportunities and be a benefit when attracting new business to the area,” said Bruce Dockter, SVRHC board chairman, in a statement. “It is gratifying after so much hard work on the part of many people to see this happening and I look forward to seeing the actual construction begin.”

The four-story, $100 million hospital was designed by Nashville, Tenn.-based Gould Turner Group and will be constructed by J.E. Dunn Construction, with offices in Phoenix. The hospital partnered with the RegionalCare Hospital Partners (RCHP) to develop a 40-year lease agreement for the property. RCHP has also committed to allocating $18 million to recruit more than 25 new physicians over the next seven years.

The groundbreaking took place close to the current hospitals 50th anniversary of operation. With this new construction, officials said the region will now enjoy more tech-advanced amenities.

“With this new hospital, residents of Sierra Vista will have a top-level facility to go along with the new high-quality patient care they have received for so long. The new hospital, which will be equipped with the latest available technology, will bring this community and the surrounding area an enhanced level of medical care that long has been needed,” said Congressman Ron Barber in a statement.

At 175,00 square feet, the new facility is more than double the space of the current hospital and all patient beds will be private. The hospital will feature 15 inpatient psychiatric beds with certain beds dedicated to serving veterans diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder or other mental illnesses.

The replacement facility will be built on the site of the existing hospital and is scheduled to open in spring 2015.

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The firm was recently awarded the vertical expansion and renovation of Medical City Hospital. The project is expected to begin in October and will include a 160,307-square-foot, four-story expansion above the existing emergency department and ambulance drop-off. It will also feature a 68,576-square-foot, phased interior renovation of several campus departments, including surgery, medical oncology, surgical oncology, stem ell and the emergency department/cardio diagnostic unit. This will be the fifth — and largest — renovation project that Brasfield & Gorrie has completed for the facility. Perkins + Will, with offices in Dallas, is serving as the project’s architect of record.

On May 31, the firm also celebrated the official topping out of the South Tower addition at Kingwood Medical Center. The 152,000-square-foot project, which began in October 2012 and is slated for completion in October 2014, includes a three-story addition and renovations of the existing hospital.

The first floor of the addition will feature 12 labor, delivery and recovery rooms, eight high-risk antepartum beds, 24 neonatal intensive care beds, two C-section operating rooms and a four-bed obstetric triage suite. The second floor will include 36 postpartum beds and 32 well-baby nursery beds. On the third floor, there will be shell space for future pediatric and medical or surgical beds. Also part of the project is the new central energy plant. Nashville, Tenn.-based Gould Turner Group is the architect on the expansion.

During construction of the addition, Brasfield & Gorrie is also working on several renovations of the existing hospital, including ones to administrative, admissions and kitchen and dining areas. Parking will also be added to the southeast and northwest corners of the campus.
 

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