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NIH gets green light on 1st new building |
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Monday, 25 February 2008 |
 Northern Inyo Hospital’s newest building will include laundry facilities, as well as a laboratory and purchasing facilities. Funding for NIH’s building project is being supplied by a bond approved by voters in the hospital district in June, 2006. Photo courtesy Northern Inyo Hospital By Ken Koerner
Register Staff 2-23-2008
The first of three new structures on the charts for Northern Inyo Hospital’s building project has received a clean bill of health.
Northern Inyo Hospital Administrator John Halfen advised the board Wednesday that NIH has now received a Certificate of Occupancy for its new Supply Building “on the schedule projected when NIH broke ground.”
Construction of the Supply Building began in December, 2006 with a targeted date of completion set for Jan. 1, 2008. The 13,859 square-foot building will house laboratory, pathology, biomedical engineering, purchasing and laundry facilities; plus satellite boilers for the hospital complex.
According to NIH, the Supply Building will be followed as “ready for occupancy” in mid-March by NIH’s new radiology building, thanks to the Office of Statewide Hospital Planning and Development having recently signed off on plans for a connector between the new radiology building and the main hospital building. This is an “OSHPD technical requirement” that must be met prior to a Certificate of Occupancy being received for new imaging building.
At that juncture, two of the three buildings that comprise the NIH building project should be ready to actively serve the medical needs of the community, according to Halfen.
Halfen informed the board that “plans are currently being developed for interested members of the public to tour both the supply and radiology buildings at an open houuse event in mid-April.”
The completion of the all-digital imaging building and the supply building, Halfen explained, will then provide the option for “some relocation of services out of the oldest section of the hospital that is scheduled for demolition.”
The subsequent tear-down of that section of the old building, coupled with the use of some temporary facilities, will provide the space needed to begin Phase II of the building project – construction of the new main hospital building. “Construction bids for Phase II are expected to go out in July, 2008 and we should receive bid responses 30 days later,” Halfen said. “At that point, we’ll have a very clear idea of the total costs we’re facing for completion of the overall building project we’ve undertaken.”
In June, 2006 voters in the hospital district went to the polls and delivered a nearly 80 percent approval to authorize a $29.5 million construction bond issue for NIH. “Thus far, the hospital district has drawn upon $14.5 million of the approved bond amount,” said Halfen. “We’ll be issuing the second half ($15 million) of those bond funds six months to a year from now.”
While the building project is aligned with the timetable most recently determined, “there have been building delays and unforeseen problems to be solved; so we have incurred higher costs than initially anticipated,” said Halfen.
“Looking back six years ago or so,” Halfen said, “when the planning for all of this work was first being discussed, the expectation was for the final costs to be in the $30 million range. At this point, we’re looking at something more like $47 million.” Halfen explained that there are multiple considerations for “how any hospital district can best respond to securing additional capital in these situations.”
As part of the newly configured NIH complex, parking considerations have also come into play. Halfen advised the board that hurdle is being crossed with the help of a five-year lease agreement with the Bishop Paiute Tribe for new parking spaces adjacent to the hospital’s property. The lease is expected to be signed in the very near future.
The general fiscal health of NIH was reported to the board as sound, explained Halfen. “There’s nothing to jump up and down with excitement about,” Halfen said, “and there’s nothing to cause the wringing of hands, either.”
Improvement in specific areas of patient care were also addressed during the board’s meeting. The approval of the acquisition of new “breast-node sampling equipment” gained unanimous support from the board; as did the purchase of new pulmonary function technology.
The next meeting of the NIH board is expected to be held on Wednesday, March 19, at 5:30 p.m.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 31 March 2008 )
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