Construction continues on the Women’s Center at Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital as the Hazel Hawkins Hospital Foundation launches the next phase of its fundraising plan to equip the center with all the items needed to provide women’s healthcare when it opens in December 2012.
The foundation set a goal of raising $300,000 to furnish and equip the new building, and so far have raised $135,000 toward that goal.
“They netted $83,000 from their Dinner Dance on Nov. 4,” said Frankie Gallagher, spokeswoman for Hazel Hawkins.
The $15 million construction project is funded by Measure L, a property bond approved by voters in 2005. The bond raised $31.5 million, with some already used to expand the emergency room at the hospital.
In 2005, hospital officials estimated the cost of a women’s center would be $8 million.
The latest foundation newsletter included a list of naming opportunities for residents or businesses for high-ticket to smaller-ticket items to fill the 13,760 square-foot, three-story building. Those who donate have the chance to have an area of the hospital or equipment named in their honor.
The Women’s Center will offer birthing suites and labor and delivery rooms for pregnant women, but will also serve women of all ages such as older women in need of a mammogram or bone density testing. The total cost for the equipment is $500,000.
Many of the items needed for the Women’s Center are to equip the 13 birthing suites and labor/delivery rooms. The cost to equip each room is $12,000 for such items as birthing beds, bassinets, fetal monitors, delivery tables and rocking chairs. The foundation is also raising $20,000 for a newborn nursery.
“The population of the City of Hollister is now over 35,000 people,” said Peggy Pierce, the campaign chair, in a press release. “We have approximately 650 births in San Benito County each year. The Women’s Center is very much needed in this community.”
It has been 50 years since the current obstetrics department opened at Hazel Hawkins Hospital.
Other facilities for which money is being raised include nursing stations, a lobby, an operating suite, physician sleep rooms and a nurses’ lounge.
“Keep in mind, the Women’s Center is not just for having babies,” Pierce said. “It is for women’s health at all stages of life.”
The most expensive items include digital diagnostic imaging equipment to provide ultrasounds, digital mammography and done density testing. The cost for the Digital Diagnostic Imaging Center is $250,000.
The new center will also include the McCullough Resource Center Fund that will outfit a library that will have books, magazines, brochures, CDs, videos and computers with Internet access so that residents can access the latest information on women’s health issues. Donations can be made to the fund, named in honor of Mary and Gerald McCullough.
“Construction is going really well,” Gallagher said. “It’s at about 20 percent completion.”
So far crews have restored the east parking, excavated and formed elevator pits and stair footing, formed one side of the east and west footing stem wall and sandblasted rebar. The project continued the week before Thanksgiving with crews pouring interior footings, installing underslab conduits, installing rebar at the stair footing and more. No night or weekend work has been conducted.
Upcoming work includes installing plumbing sleeves at east footing, installing underground utilities and creating the front hospital parking lot. Q Builders, Inc. is the contractor overseeing the project, and it sends weekly updates on the construction for those interested.
