Expansion progressing at new hospital

RENDERING SPECIAL TO FLORIDA WEEKLY An artist's rendering of Gulf Coast Hospital.

It might still be a year away from occupancy, but Gulf Coast Hospital staff showed off its four-story addition to the media last week.

"We wanted to let people know what's coming in about a year," said Lynn Melvin, Lee Memorial Health System's spokesperson. "The hospital could open in the first quarter of 2009."

The $286-million construction site is about 65 percent complete, with eight months of interior finishing and about four months of installing equipment, said Eric Anderson, a senior project manager for Lee Memorial.

"The major challenge in building a hospital is the codes," Anderson said. "The codes are more strict for hospitals than regular construction. We are also building a state of the art facility."

Copper pipe, for example, not plastic must be used in hospital construction because of code requirement..

Other regulations involving hospital gas lines and utilities also must be observed.

"Look up at the ceiling," Anderson said, "In other commercial buildings you wouldn't see so much ductwork, electrical lines and piping."

Even the doors have different hardware on them, including knobs and seals, said Sam Purnell, a construction supervisor for subcontractor Girtman & Associates of Nashville.

Purnell's finishing crew joins about 450 construction workers involved in everything from plaster wall finishing to electrical work to anything else involved in construction at the site.

The site plans call for 420,000 square feet of new construction - that's nearly 10 acres under roof - and 20,000 square feet of renovated space in the older building when the building is completed.

"I think we'll have installed more than 2,000 doors," Purnell said. "That is a lot of doors."

Lee Memorial inherited the construction project at the corner of Daniels and Metro parkways when it bought the hospital, Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center and other medical buildings about 18 months ago for about $535 million including construction costs from Hospital Corporation of America.

Lower costs drove Hospital Corporation's idea of expanding the Gulf Coast Hospital site on its 123 acres instead of adapting the antiquated Southwest Regional Medical Center to new codes.

Construction started in 2006 and Lee Memorial continued it.

At completion the new hospital will encompass 550,000 square feet. It will be staffed with nurses, physicians and other staff from Southwest Regional Medical Center.

The old medical center could be demolished or rented, a decision has not yet been made, Anderson said. In either case work continues at the new facility, which will have 349 privatepatient rooms, an increase from its current 120 beds. The 18 additional operating rooms will have ceiling and floor space to accommodate high tech and robotic surgical equipment, Anderson said.

The emergency department will have 28 exam rooms and 10 observation areas. The emergency department will be able to see twice the 46,000 cases it treats every year. It will not be a trauma center.

At the center of traffic control, a planned Metro Parkway widening will allow for easier access to the hospital for emergency patients and other people expected to come from Estero, Bonita, Lehigh Acres and south Fort Myers.

The $21-million widening project had as much as $15-million advanced by Lee Memorial to get the project done quicker. Lee Memorial gets the money back from the state when it is budgeted. Completion of the road is not expected by the Florida Department of Transportation until about 2010. The new hospital will be in full swing by then.

Services that could be provided at Gulf Coast Hospital after completion include:

>>Emergency and possible trauma care
>>Cardiovascular care
>>Heart transplants
>>Kidney transplants
>>Orthopedic surgery
>>Neurosurgery and spine surgery
>>Neurology and stroke care
>>Obstetrics and gynecological care
>>Pediatrics
>>Oncology and the Patty Berg Cancer Center
>>General and vascular surgery
>>General medicine
>>Wound care and hyperbolic oxygen therapy
>>Diagnostic imaging and outpatient rehabilitation
services