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Construction Begins on Washington Project After Delays

TACOMA, Wash. — Construction of a new $26 million health center — delayed for months — began in Tacoma, Wash. The 54,000-square-foot project, financed by tax credits, private donors, the state, the city of Tacoma and several non-profit corporations, replaces a small community health care clinic that has served the Hilltop and near-downtown-Tacoma areas for three decades.

The three-story brick facility will serve more than 17,000 patients annually and include medical and dental clinics, urgent care, radiology, pediatrics, internal medicine and obstetrics.

“In a time of economic uncertainty, this innovative source of funding was a real boon to making sure our important health care facility would happen,” said David Flentge, president and chief executive officer of Community Health Care. “Without New Market Tax Credits raising the financing necessary, our new center would have been difficult, to say the least.”

Added Matt Philpott, director of new markets, historic and renewable energy tax credit investments for U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation, “The need for New Market Tax Credit financing is greater than ever during a slow economy, as funding gaps get larger and other sources of capital disappear.”

Community Health Care was able to raise more than $21 million through the tax credit program. Capital Campaign Co-Chair Jim Walton says that with $5 million left to go, there are still opportunities to help underwrite this project.

The project architect is Johnson Architecture and Planning, and Abbott Construction will serve as general contractor. The new health center is slated for completion by October 2013.

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Rural Wash. Hospital To Break Ground

FRIDAY HARBOR, Wash. — The new PeaceHealth Peace Island Medical Center will he hosting a groundbreaking ceremony in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island on July 23. Federal, state and local leaders will join the San Juan community in breaking ground for the new primary care and specialty clinic, and Critical Access Hospital.

The hospital will include an expanded primary care and specialty clinic, an enhanced diagnostic services center, a cancer care center providing chemotherapy and other treatments, a 24-hour emergency room, and a ten-bed Critical Access Hospital, which will replace San Juan Island’s existing rural health clinic.

Scheduled to open in late 2012, the building incorporates the latest environmentally sensitive and sustainable design and construction concepts and will feature natural ventilation, a ground-source heat pump system, carbon neutrality and extensive day lighting.

Mahlum is the architect and Howard S. Wright is the builder.

The San Juan Island Community Foundation is providing fundraising and support for the groundbreaking. In 2006 the foundation recognized the need to address the local crisis in healthcare delivery and to assure better financial stability for island healthcare while expanding services, according to the organization.

Through numerous community activities, the group has been instrumental in bringing the Peace Island Medical Center project to fruition.

The San Juan Island Community Foundation, established in 1994, by a group of island residents who sought to encourage and support the work of local nonprofit organizations. The Foundation explores the concerns of these organizations, looking for both traditional and innovative ideas, according to the group. By pooling donations from island residents, the foundation makes grants to help cover those needs.

PeaceHealth is a Washington-based nonprofit healthcare system serving multiple rural and urban communities in Washington, Oregon and Alaska. Founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, PeaceHealth has provided medicine and compassionate care to Northwest communities for more than a century, including serving the needs of small and remote communities through the operation of three Critical Access Hospitals.

PeaceHealth annually receives national recognition for innovations in patient-centered care, patient safety and healthcare technology. Research published in the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety ranked PeaceHealth as one of the top five quality of care healthcare systems in the country, and the leading system in the western U.S.

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Providence Regional Opens New Medical Tower in Washington State

EVERETT, Wash. — Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett recently opened its new, $460 million, state-of-the-art medical tower to the public, the largest and most comprehensive building project in the hospital’s 150-year history.

The 12-story, 680,000-square-foot Marshall and Katherine Cymbaluk Medical Tower at the medical center’s Colby Campus, is one of the largest private investment projects in Snohomish County and will serve as the centerpiece of the hospital’s comprehensive plan to continue serving the healthcare needs of the growing community.

ZGF Architects served as the architect and interior designer, Mortensen Construction as the general contractor, Magnusson Klemencic Associates as the structural/civil engineer, CDi Engineers as the mechanical engineer and Sparling as the electrical/IT/acoustic engineer on the project. Candela provided the lighting, SiteWorkshop provided the landscaping, Anderson Krygier Inc. provided the graphics and Lerch Bates provided vertical transportation, while Rolf Jensen acted as the code consultant.

According to Providence CEO David Brooks, the new tower was designed around Providence’s patient- and family-centered care philosophy, with comfort, privacy and convenience in mind. “By combining cutting-edge technology with patient-centric care, Providence aims to set a new standard for the way patients and their families experience hospital care in America,” said Brooks.

The new acute care tower expands hospital services within a rapidly growing region and consolidates the largest emergency department service in the state of Washington into one facility. The facility includes 328 patient rooms for acute, critical and surgical care, a parking structure, central plant, significant site, street and utility improvements and an updated campus master plan.

The tower features $60 million in the latest medical equipment and is designed to adapt to technology as it evolves in the future. It dedicates an entire floor larger than an NFL football field to emergency services, and includes 79 private treatment rooms and four trauma rooms. CT and X-ray services are also located within the department to provide quick access to imaging capabilities.

More than $20 million in diagnostic imaging equipment, including two MRI scanning machines and four CT scanners, are housed on the diagnostic imaging floor. The department has a unique design that will accommodate both inpatient and outpatient imaging needs, and electronic medical records allow doctors and staff from multiple organizations to share information in real time, speeding up diagnosis and treatment.

By working closely with users, including key service line leaders, hospital staff and other stakeholders through a series of workshops, Providence decided to merge three key hospital functions – surgery, interventional radiology and catheterization laboratories – into a progressive Hybrid OR service.

Two floors of the tower are dedicated to surgical and interventional procedures and two floors house 48 patient rooms for intensive care, which include six dialysis stations. Each of the top three floors has 56 patient rooms for medical or post-surgical patients.

Providence also worked closely with its Patient and Family Advisory Council when designing the tower and, as a result, incorporated several elements not typically found in hospitals. Most rooms have a special “family zone” area, complete with a sleeper sofa and storage area so that a patient’s family members may stay with them.

The tower was designed to create a calming, healing environment for patients, family members and visitors. The building brings nature and the outdoors inside, with features such as a two-story atrium lobby, patient rooms with sweeping views on all sides of the building and a rooftop viewing garden with native plants, grasses and trees. It also features family lounges with Internet access, and the surgery waiting areas provide a kitchen, playroom and resource center.

The planning and design of the healing environment centered around the concept of providing a highly sustainable, light filled, patient-centered care setting, while identifying opportunities to consolidate similar functions, improve adjacencies of interdependent departments and simplify processes and procedures such as staff, patient and material flow to provide maximum efficiency and flexibility, according to the design team.

Located within a single-family residential neighborhood, the design process involved working collaboratively with residents, city officials, and key stakeholders to address concerns about placement, size, scale and the architectural character of the tower, central plant and parking structure. This resulted in smaller footprints and buffer zones with landscaped treatments to preserve view corridors, as well as modern forms such as glass and metal panels combined with traditional materials such as brick and wood.

Providence Regional Medical Center Everett is a tertiary referral center serving five counties with comprehensive, nonprofit, mission-based health care. In addition to cardiac services, critical care and vascular care, Providence offers general medical and surgical care, and specialized treatment in areas such as oncology, newborn intensive care, orthopedics, neurosurgery, trauma and pediatrics. The hospital operates two campuses in Everett.

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Green Radiology Center Planned in Seattle

SEATTLE — The Seattle-based Swedish Cancer Institute has a plan to restore community-based radiotherapy cancer treatment in the Seattle area by applying modern building technology that is swift — and green.

The patented factory fabricated radiotherapy treatment vault and clinic by RAD Technology Medical Systems will allow SCI to cut traditional building schedules by 50 percent while constructing a facility in accordance with the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED certification.

Once finished, the 4,000- square foot Swedish Cancer Institute Radiation Treatment Center on the Ballard campus will house the first TomoTherapy Hi-Art Radiation Treatment System in the Seattle metropolitan area along with patient and clinical staff accommodations.

“Hospital facilities are perhaps one of the most difficult types of structures to make compliant with LEED criteria,” says RAD President John J Lefkus III. “Maintaining health and equipment environmental standards can be in conflict with renewable and lean strategies. RAD has unique construction techniques that benefit projects thru the extensive use of renewable construction materials and employs energy efficient mechanical systems."

The new facility at Swedish/Ballard is currently erected with most work expected complete by the end of the year and is scheduled to treat its first patient at the end of January 2011.

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Seattle Children’s Plan Moves Forward

SEATTLE — Seattle Children’s Hospital released an artists rendering showing what the campus may look like in 2013 when the first phase of a construction project that will ultimately increase bed capacity from 250 to 600, is completed.

The $175 million phase one, which Seattle-based Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects is currently planning, is scheduled to break ground in early 2011, and will add between 60-80 beds to the campus. With a twenty-year total project timeline, the proposed design incorporates neutral stones, glass and metal — all chosen to complement the current architecture and park-like surroundings. Sellen Construction, also of Seattle, will be the builder on phase one.

Phase one will add approximately 300,000 square feet of space to the hospital, including a kitchen, service dock, and improved emergency department. Some portions of the new campus will incorporate green roofs to absorb runoff, and insulate the building.

As a result of collaborative planning, patient rooms will be designed as eight-room “neighborhoods” with transparent slider doors that provide visibility for families and their care team. Features will include: sleeper sofas, privacy curtains, bathrooms with showers, and care team “porches” — alcoves outside patient rooms that provide closer access for the care team.

“Over the last few months, we have listened to hospital staff and patient families in order to design spaces that respond to their needs,” says Lisa Brandenburg, chief administrative officer at the hospital.

Hospital officials say that the need to grow is based largely on the projection that Washington’s infant to 21-year-old population is expected to grow 21 percent by 2030.

Overcrowding at the pediatric hospital is another reason for the expansion. At 250 beds, Seattle Children’s is small compared to pediatric hospitals in cities of similar size. The facility is already operating at 85- to 100-percent of capacity year-round and staff has had to turn away sick children in the past because of a lack of intensive care beds.

Planners are also working with the City of Seattle and the community to analyze options for a new helicopter-landing pad.

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Survey Indicates Wash. Green Jobs Are on the Rise

OLYMPIA, Wash. – A survey produced by the state’s Employment Security Department identified 99,319 green jobs in Washington in 2009, about 3.3 percent of the state’s work force.

The survey, released in March, suggests green jobs grew by 33 percent, or 15,100 positions, for companies that were surveyed in 2008 and again in 2009.

“If Washington can see this kind of shift to green jobs during a recession, just think what will happen as our economy recovers,” says Gov. Chris Gregoire.

More than 13,000 employers responded to the 2009 survey, resulting in a 70 percent response rate. Among the green jobs listed, 76,137 were private-sector positions while 23,182 were public-sector jobs. In the survey, green jobs were described as positions that increased energy efficiency, produce renewable energy, prevent or reduce environmental pollution, or provided mitigation or cleanup of environmental pollution.

Officials caution that a variety of factors can account for the differences between the 2008 and 2009 reports, including the fact that the 2008 survey did not include public-sector positions and that some of the 2009 numbers may have resulted from better awareness of what constitutes a green job. Private sector companies surveyed for the first time in 2009 accounted for another 13,843 green jobs not listed in the 2008 survey. Surveyors caution that these factors may make it difficult to draw solid conclusions.

In 2009, construction jobs accounted for more green jobs than any other industry with 29,410 positions (39 percent), largely in the area of increasing energy efficiency. The agriculture industry ranked second with 12,027 green jobs, mostly in the field of preventing and reducing environmental pollution. The most common green occupation was agricultural workers, followed by electricians, according to the 2009 survey.

Among the 12 statewide workforce development areas outlined by the ESD, the southeastern Benton-Franklin counties region was listed as having the largest amount of green jobs of total workforce in the state at 8.2 percent. The Seattle-King development area had the largest number of green jobs per region overall at 32,857, or 33.1 percent of green jobs, an amount that made up 2.7 percent of that region’s total employment numbers.

“We don’t really have a separate green economy,” says Employment Security Commissioner Karen Lee. “We have an economy that is becoming greener.”

The ESD survey was request by the state Legislature as part of Engrossed Second Substitute House Bill 2227 (E2SHB 2227), which passed in 2009. E2SHB 2227 was created to identify strategic green industries in the state and to train workers in green-economy industries and jobs.

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