Building a New General

as seen in the Curry Coastal Pilot, by staff writer Randy Robbins

GOLD BEACH, OR (April 20, 2016) - Nearly a year after the ground-breaking ceremony, construction of the new hospital in Gold Beach is on time and on budget, according to Curry Health Network officials.

Funded in part by a $10 million bond approved by voters in the Curry Health District in November 2013, and a $20.9 million federal loan, the $32 million, 62,000-square-foot facility is slated to complete by the end of the year. It will replace the existing Curry General Hospital, nicknamed "The General," that was built more than 60 years ago.

Despite a wintery [sic]mix of rain and high force winds for six to eight weeks that temporarily slowed construction, Curry Health Network's Facilities Operations Officer David Sanford has hopes that by the new year the hospital will, indeed, be open to care for the community.

Handling construction is The Erdman Company, a national leader in healthcare consulting, facility planning, development and design-build projects, headquartered in Wisconsin.

"We've had tremendous community support and a great partnership with Erdman and now we are looking to be ready to go at the end of calendar year 2016," Sanford said.
Tom Kaczmark, senior project superintendent for Erdman, described some of the logistics in building the five-story structure.



So far, Erdman has installed 737 Geo piers under the building and generator pad, poured 3,272 cubic yards of concrete into footings, grade beams, walls and floors, erected 756 tons of structural steel, wired 73,127 linear feet electrical conduit, and covered it all with 9,292 sheets of 5/8-inch drywall.

Kaczmark said the Gold Beach hospital has the distinction of being the first in the nation designed to withstand a 9.0 earthquake.

"We hope we never have to put it to the test, but we have built the structure to absorb a 14-inch deflection which will allow the building to shift," he said. "The windows are designed to take up to 140 mph winds impact. The Geo piers are buried 25 to 35 feet each."

The webs of steel girders that are the new hospital's framing skeleton are fused and bolted into tons of thick concrete.

Sanford is proud of the work that has been done and points to a hospital with vast improvements over the existing facility.

"When we were planning the facility we knew right away some of the biggest challenges would be wind and coastal severe weather along with being a rural community," he said.

To that end, the new hospital will have four separate examination rooms, two trauma rooms, and the E.R. will have its own nurse's station. It will have 18 patient beds.
The new facility will provide much more space to house patients, Sanford said, with a primary objective of improving quality of care and safety.

"The new hospital will have six private rooms with picture windows overlooking the town and ocean beyond, 10 semi-private rooms, and two labor and delivery rooms," he said. It also will include a clinic, laboratory, radiology, cardiopulmonary, physical therapy and two separate state of the art operating rooms.

"This hospital has been designed and engineered made for the needs of this community," Kaczmark said.

Sanford is looking forward to having the community see the end result.

And, he notes, it will be easy to get to access the new hospital. Parking problems experienced at the existing facility will be a thing of the past, he said.

"We are putting in 118 public parking spaces, those will be primarily where the old hospital sits now," he said. The hospital will have both a helipad and designated emergency entrance. The building also will include two elevators (one for patients and visitors, and one for medical staff and equipment). And climate control will be fully automated.

"In the old hospital we had 23 air conditioning units that ran 24 hours a day," Sanford said. "This hospital will feature two state of the art, built-in climate control units that will evenly heat and cool the entire structure."

Kaczmark said he believes the county will have benefits from the hospital beyond the obvious expansion of services. He thinks it will bring more people to live and work in the area, and to retire. And that the new hospital will act as a recruiting tool to bring high caliber medical personnel to the area.

"If I was a young doctor and I had a choice of places to pursue my medical career, I would look at this area's natural beauty and my ability to perform my duties practicing medicine in a brand new facility like this and I'd be hooked," he said.