On All Cylinders

Kaiser Permanente has 14 hospital projects going on simultaneously in California

By Robert Carlsen

Kaiser Permanente's design template system for building its medical centers and campuses has shortened delivery times for these complicated projects by at least a year, and at significant cost savings.

Kaiser currently has 14 projects underway in California, with one of them, the West Los Angeles Hospital Tower seismic replacement project, nearing the move-in phase. Not all these projects are template designed, but some template elements are being incorporated in separate areas, such as rooms and operations designs.

Nearly three years ago, Kaiser hired the joint venture team of Chong Partners Architecture and SmithGroup to come up with the template system.

"We are currently in the process of submitting our fifth template hospital to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development and have been experiencing continued and improved successes with each project," says Scott Bell, national manager, project support and review, for Kaiser Permanente. "Antioch, Modesto and Sand Canyon were the first three template hospitals and are all nearing completion, on schedule and on budget."

Bell adds that the delivery time of five years from concept to completion has been shortened by at least a year when compared to the typical greenfield hospital project. Kaiser's fourth template hospital, Vacaville, will reduce the delivery time by at least an additional six months, he says.

"Ontario, our fifth template hospital, is expected to reduce the delivery time an additional three months over Vacaville," adds Bell.

Following are some updates on three of Kaiser's projects in California:

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Vacaville

Kaiser Vacaville is about halfway complete, according to general contractor Rudolph and Sletten. Chong Partners is the architect for this four-story medical office building and ambulatory service center with a structural steel buckling restraint brace frame sitting on spread footings and grade beams.

The exterior is composed of metal panels and lath/plaster skin with curtain wall and punched window type glazing systems and TPO or single-ply type roofing membrane.

Rudolph and Sletten said this facility will tie into the OSHPD-governed hospital adjacent to the facility. The new building will serve as the main entry to the hospital.

The medical office building houses several departments, including administration, radiology, nuclear medicine, mammography, ortho/podiatry, surgery center, recovery, anesthesia, urology, head and neck surgery, gastroenterology, pulmonary, OB/GYN, social services, cardiology, chemotherapy and others.

Vallejo

Upon completion in spring 2009, the new 458,000-sq-ft, 188-bed tower for Kaiser Permanente in Vallejo will meet all state-mandated seismic safety standards, according to general contractor McCarthy Building Cos. Replacing an existing 265,000-sq-ft structure originally built in 1973, the new facility will offer expanded emergency, radiology and surgical services, enhanced physical medicine and rehabilitation facilities, and enhanced parking.

Chong Partners Architecture designed the facility.

McCarthy is also constructing a new two-story, 28,600-sq-ft central utility plant and a new main utility trench (¼-mi long) between the new hospital and the new and existing utility plants. To keep traffic flowing during trench construction, McCarthy staff utilized a military style "Bailey Bridge," placing three, 20-ft sections in different configurations across the trench cut to allow continuous campus access.

Though not a template hospital, the Vallejo project is going smoothly, according to McCarthy project manager, Kevin Westphal. Westphal says the roof is on and crews were "buttoning up" the skin at press time. "The precast has been erected and framed out," he adds.

Westphal says the main challenge on this project, and as construction professionals have seen on many other replacement hospital projects, is working in a constrained site adjacent to the existing, fully-operational facility.

West Los Angeles

Kaiser Permanente broke ground in May 2004 on a new hospital to replace its West Los Angeles Medical Center. The general contractor on the $170 million project is McCarthy Building Cos. and the architect is HMC.

The new five-story hospital tower will house the emergency department, radiology and lab services, five new inpatient operating rooms as well as a central facility for sterilizing equipment and instruments. Three 26 bed medical surgical units will be part of the new hospital along with inpatient pharmacy, labor and delivery suites.

This medical center is one of two Kaiser Medical Centers within the metro Los Angeles service area. As the centerpiece to the Kaiser West LA Medical Campus reconstruction project, the new 184,000-sq-ft tower serves a densely populated and ethnically diverse community. The project is phased to systematically construct and relocate departments while maintaining operations.

Michael Gritters, vice president of healthcare operations for McCarthy's Southern California division, says the project was constructed in "small, distinct phases" in order not to disrupt the existing campus too much. He adds that McCarthy had up to 150 field personnel onsite at times - "that's the biggest number I've seen."

Chin-Whan Lee, AIA, LEED AP, of HMC, says the main challenge was accessibility and continuity of services. "Emergency services had to be maintained - we can't just shut it down, then dealing with the traffic, ambulance circulation, parking - it was extremely complex," he adds.

"There's a reason why these hospital projects are difficult, there's a lot of humps and bumps to get over," adds Gritters. "The general contractor has to be careful and has to have some special people on staff to react to the inevitable problems."

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