June 15, 2010

Sonoma Valley Hospital has approved a unique $23 million design-build contract for its seismic upgrade including new emergency and operating rooms.

The original estimates for the project were between $38 million and $40 million. But legislation by Sen. Patricia Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa) in 2008 made it possible for the hospital to use a design-build process which holds the architect and builder to a set price.

The Sonoma Valley Health Care District board of directors approved the contract with Otto Construction and Nacht & Lewis Architects on June 7 and construction should be completed by November of 2012. To pay for it, voters approved a $35 million general obligation bond in 2008.

The work will include a new two-story, 15,000-square-foot building for the emergency department and operating rooms.  The rest of the hospital will be reinforced as necessary to comply with seismic regulations.

“We can use the existing site and facilities to a greater extent than we thought,” said Carl Gerlach, Sonoma Hospital’s CEO. “It’s all about persistence and not accepting assumptions.”

The design-build approach is not available to district hospitals which are officially subdivisions of the state of California, Gerlach said. That’s despite the fact that hospitals like Kaiser Permanente, a nonprofit, and other for-profit hospitals can use it. And in 2002 pilot legislation was passed to extend the use of design-build to college and school districts and later to cities and counties. But special districts and school districts were not included in the legislation, said a hospital spokeswoman.

Legislation backed by the Association of California Healthcare Districts is currently pending to change that.

“We will be a witness and give testimony to the fact that it works,” Gerlach said. He credits Norman Gilroy, a retired local architect, with bringing the idea of design-build to him. Gilroy also pushed for green building techniques to be included. The California Energy Commission has provided $1.9 million for demand-side energy saving improvements. And the IRS has made allocations for up to $9.3 million in tax exempt bonds that the District can sell as part of the federal Clean Renewable Energy Bonds program, said the hospital spokesperson.

Gerlach said he’s seen the cost of the hospital's renovation plans continually decline. Five to six years ago there was a proposal to build an entirely new facility for more than $200 million.

“We have found a solution to the problem of seismic regulation in California at a much much more affordable price,” Gerlach said.

It will take about six months to complete the design of the project and to get it to the Office of Statewide Health and Planning Development (OSHPD), he said.