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St. Francis Hospital Expansion Just What the Doctor Ordered By Lori Lovely CEG CORRESPONDENT
Two years after acquiring state approval, St. Francis Hospital in Columbus, Ga., broke ground on its $115 million expansion in October 2011, the largest in its 60year history. Robert Granger, St. Francis president and CEO, told the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer that the time was spent “working through getting the financing arranged and the final construction plans drawn.” The hefty price tag covers the cost of construction and installation of medical and office equipment. Skanska USA will complete the new construction and renovation of the main hospital by August 2013. Skanska USA, based in New York, consists of several divisions. Skanska USA Building specializes in building construction, but other divisions are involved with civil infrastructure partnerships and developing public-private partnerships as well as commercial development projects in select U.S. markets. The contractor took out a building permit on Aug. 23 from the city of Columbus for the first portion of construction (the four-story clinical services tower on the back side of the main hospital), expected to cost nearly $37 million. A permit for the five-story, medical office building was taken out a few weeks later. Blueprint for Healthcare The expansion includes a fourstory 188,368-sq. ft. (17,500 sq m) clinical services building and a five-story, 166,840-sq. ft. (15,500 sq m) medical office building. The addition of more than 375,000 sq.
Skanska USA will complete the new construction and renovation of the main hospital by August 2013.
ft. (34,838 sq m) to the hospital’s main campus will give St. Francis just under 1 million sq. ft. (92,903 sq m) of space on its 35-acre medical complex at the corner of Manchester Expressway and Woodruff Road. Its medical facili-
and project director on site. They will be attached with a common atrium showcasing architectural features. The tower adjacent to the existing facility will house a dedicated cardiovascular surgical unit with
and 110 semi-private rooms. “It will be an all-private room facility,” Granger told a Columbus TV station. “You will no longer have a roommate when you come to St. Francis. We’ll be the only full service hospital in the community
“Since we’re the area’s cardiac hospital, the expansion will also enable us to have a dedicated cardiovascular intensive care unit and treatment center in one facility. We’re redoing the cardiac program, giving it a brand new home, redoing the emergency room, creating a dedicated cardiovascular intensive care unit. This is about our core services and needing private rooms for our core services.” Robert Granger St. Francis Hospital
ties currently comprise about 600,000 sq. ft. (55,741 sq m). The two new towers are pretty straight-forward, unadorned steelframed “boxes” with brick exterior, explained Tracy Hunt, vice president of operations of Skanska
four catheterization labs, a special procedures room, a nuclear medicine suite and 30 prep and recovery bays. It will offer spacious new private rooms, expanding the number of private rooms to 248. The hospital currently has 75 private
that has all private rooms.” The second tower will house the Cardiac and Women’s Centers of Excellence and include a new 324seat auditorium. Renovation of the main hospital will result in an expanded emergency room three
times the size of the previous ER, including 20 new patient treatment rooms and an expanded surgical suite with seven additional operating rooms. “Since we’re the area’s cardiac hospital, the expansion will also enable us to have a dedicated cardiovascular intensive care unit and treatment center in one facility,” said Granger. “We’re redoing the cardiac program, giving it a brand new home, redoing the emergency room, creating a dedicated cardiovascular intensive care unit. This is about our core services and needing private rooms for our core services.” Due to the proximity of the structures and good access, Hunt said crews are able to use a crawler instead of tower cranes. However, because the towers are adjoined to the existing hospital, construction is challenging in other ways. “The hardest thing about this project is working around the existing hospital,” Hunt explained. Concern focused on “public flow” in corners of the existing building, as well as noise, vibration and dust. In preparation for major demolition to open up the existing structure, crews performed surveys, took photos and made extensive notes, but the key, Hunt claimed, was getting the right subcontractor involved. Even so, he said they have to remain flexible. “If things get too noisy, we have to stop.” Fortunately, Hunt noted, “Skanska has enough experience working on hospital projects that stoppages were factored into the schedule. It’s a hard-and-fast deadline. We work sunup to sundown six days a week, but we may have see HOSPITAL page 2