"Boone Hospital starts new tower
Boone Hospital Center broke ground today on the largest expansion in its 88-year history. A new seven-story patient tower will include 128 private patient rooms that, while incrementally increasing the hospital’s capacity, will shift patients out of cramped double-occupancy units and into much-demanded private rooms.
“It’s just hard to deliver the best care in a non-private way,” said Robert McDavid, a physician and chairman of Boone Hospital’s Board of Trustees. “People deserve privacy in hospitals right now, and that’s the thing that we’re finally going to be able to deliver.”
Boone Hospital is licensed for 388 beds, and the new tower will increase that capacity by 75 to 80 beds. McDavid said the additional space will give doctors greater flexibility to segregate patients based on seriousness of illness, contagion and gender.
The curved-front tower with a brick-and-glass exterior will sit on the east side of William Street, where the main entrance previously was located. The new structure is scheduled for completion in spring 2011 and is being built to strict environmental standards by Reinhardt/Wilson.
The entire project, including landscaping on William Street and a new 940-space parking garage, will cost about $125 million.
Efforts to finance the project began in 2006, when hospital trustees renegotiated a lease agreement with BJC Health Care allocating extra money annually for debt service. In 2007 Boone Hospital sold $100 million worth of municipal bonds. The timing of the sale was crucial because about six months after the bonds were sold, the bond market shrank drastically in the national economic downturn.
“Even a delay of six months would have put us out of any ability to finance this expansion,” McDavid said. “Throughout the country, hospitals have had to stop expansion because nobody can borrow money. So, actually, it’s very fortuitous that we got those bonds sold when we did.”
The expansion, however, comes after a period when Boone Hospital has seen drops in its patient census and has been forced to make layoffs. Some employees have grumbled that a major investment in the patient tower shows the hospital has prioritized infrastructure over people.
Hospital President Dan Rothery said he has heard that complaint from employees but disagrees.
“Building the tower, which will serve the community well into the future, was — we believe — the right thing to do,” he said. “There will always be little blips and burps in the economy, and hospital administrators have to make adjustments to make sure we’re flexing the labor to the amount of staff here. Sometimes it’s difficult to understand, but I think we’ve done a responsible job in managing that.”
Rothery said he has seen positive growth recently both in Boone Hospital’s 26-county area and in its patient census. He anticipates hiring new staff if patient volume continues to rise. Boone Hospital employs about 1,950 people, making it one of the area’s largest employers
Hospital brass also emphasized that the new additions will be some of the first at any hospital in the nation to be designed to the strict Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards. Builders will use recycled and regionally produced materials and will install solar panels, runoff controls and very effective insulation. Rothery said some of the models he has seen show savings of as much as 14 percent in energy consumption."
Article and architect’s rendering
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/200 ... ower/?news
Boone Hospital Center broke ground today on the largest expansion in its 88-year history. A new seven-story patient tower will include 128 private patient rooms that, while incrementally increasing the hospital’s capacity, will shift patients out of cramped double-occupancy units and into much-demanded private rooms.
“It’s just hard to deliver the best care in a non-private way,” said Robert McDavid, a physician and chairman of Boone Hospital’s Board of Trustees. “People deserve privacy in hospitals right now, and that’s the thing that we’re finally going to be able to deliver.”
Boone Hospital is licensed for 388 beds, and the new tower will increase that capacity by 75 to 80 beds. McDavid said the additional space will give doctors greater flexibility to segregate patients based on seriousness of illness, contagion and gender.
The curved-front tower with a brick-and-glass exterior will sit on the east side of William Street, where the main entrance previously was located. The new structure is scheduled for completion in spring 2011 and is being built to strict environmental standards by Reinhardt/Wilson.
The entire project, including landscaping on William Street and a new 940-space parking garage, will cost about $125 million.
Efforts to finance the project began in 2006, when hospital trustees renegotiated a lease agreement with BJC Health Care allocating extra money annually for debt service. In 2007 Boone Hospital sold $100 million worth of municipal bonds. The timing of the sale was crucial because about six months after the bonds were sold, the bond market shrank drastically in the national economic downturn.
“Even a delay of six months would have put us out of any ability to finance this expansion,” McDavid said. “Throughout the country, hospitals have had to stop expansion because nobody can borrow money. So, actually, it’s very fortuitous that we got those bonds sold when we did.”
The expansion, however, comes after a period when Boone Hospital has seen drops in its patient census and has been forced to make layoffs. Some employees have grumbled that a major investment in the patient tower shows the hospital has prioritized infrastructure over people.
Hospital President Dan Rothery said he has heard that complaint from employees but disagrees.
“Building the tower, which will serve the community well into the future, was — we believe — the right thing to do,” he said. “There will always be little blips and burps in the economy, and hospital administrators have to make adjustments to make sure we’re flexing the labor to the amount of staff here. Sometimes it’s difficult to understand, but I think we’ve done a responsible job in managing that.”
Rothery said he has seen positive growth recently both in Boone Hospital’s 26-county area and in its patient census. He anticipates hiring new staff if patient volume continues to rise. Boone Hospital employs about 1,950 people, making it one of the area’s largest employers
Hospital brass also emphasized that the new additions will be some of the first at any hospital in the nation to be designed to the strict Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards. Builders will use recycled and regionally produced materials and will install solar panels, runoff controls and very effective insulation. Rothery said some of the models he has seen show savings of as much as 14 percent in energy consumption."
Article and architect’s rendering
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/200 ... ower/?news