The new Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital emergency room now is
scheduled for completion in the late spring of 2010, while the
support services building included in the expansion plan is nearing
completion, too, a hospital spokeswoman said.
The new Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital emergency room now is scheduled for completion in the late spring of 2010, while the support services building included in the expansion plan is nearing completion, too, a hospital spokeswoman said.
The emergency room construction, funded with part of the $32 million Measure L approved in 2005, started in March 2008. Most recently, it was scheduled for completion by the end of this year, but Hazel Hawkins’ head of marketing and public relations, Frankie Arballo, noted how there were delays at the outset because a lot of wet dirt had to be moved and there were some difficulties obtaining the needed steel.
“We’re moving along,” Arballo said. “We’re just excited to have it open in the spring and we just appreciate the patience and support of the community.”
The new E.R. is expected to have capacity to serve as many as 30,000 patients a year in 14,000 square feet of space, more than doubling the size of the existing emergency room. It will include seven private treatment rooms, three trauma bays, four negative-pressure treatment rooms for communicable diseases and a fast-track unit to speed up the visit for those with less-urgent matters, Arballo has noted.
She pointed out how interior plumbing, fire sprinkler work and installation of a glass block wall are done, while there also is a new emergency generator installed for the E.R. and support services building.
Aside from the emergency room, though, another major piece to the Measure L projects is almost done, too.
The first floor of the new support services building already opened, with engineering, biomedical engineering, housekeeping, and purchasing and receiving departments moved in. In the next two weeks, the third floor is expected to be occupied as well – by the business office, data processing, finance, human resources, marketing and the hospital foundation, Arballo said. Second floor construction is under way, too, and it should be done by mid-March, she said.
Groundbreaking for the new women’s center is expected this year as well, and construction should last about 18 months.
This story will appear in the Pinnacle on Friday.
