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News Article
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John Muir Expansion
by Dana Guzzetti
Valley Sentinel
2/1/08
John Muir Health Foundation's largest contributors will again don their ceremonial hard hats for the John Muir Health Cardiovascular Institute ground-breaking in Concord on February 7.
Just three weeks ago, work began on the 400,000-squarefoot phase of a Walnut Creek project that includes a new five-story, 347,000-square-foot patient-care tower.
All of the improvements could take four years to complete. Timing for the various elements must be flexible because some departments may change locations several times to avoid service stoppages. The Walnut Creek tower is expected to be finished by December 2010.
Both hospital projects are part of the healthcare system's expansion and seismic retrofit plans, which are expected to cost a combined $800 million in funds from private and public sources.
Walnut Creek
The number of patient beds will increase from 324 to 416, adding 230 private and six semi-private rooms. Tower plans call for 242 beds, a roof heliport, an underground loading dock , a central utility plant, and a new main lobby that will feature a sky-lit rotunda. Other upgrades include: 12 new inpatient surgical suites featuring technological advances such as robotic surgery, double the number of emergency-treatment stations, and 24 private critical-care rooms.
There will also be about one-third more infant beds (35) in its neonatal intensive care nursery and new lighting, which will duplicate natural light-and-dark cycles. The Walnut Creek campus is a designated trauma center serving Contra Costa County and parts of Solano County. To receive this designation, a hospital must be able to provide a comprehensive approach to treating critically injured patients by having well-defined trauma policies and procedures, and 24-hour availability of services that include surgery, intensive care units, medical imaging, laboratory and respiratory care. All of the Walnut Creek work including remodeling of Phase II and III buildings is expected to be complete by 2011.
Concord
The new $170 million John Muir Health Institute six-story tower will include four cardiac catheterization labs for diagnostic and treatment procedures, advanced equipment and monitoring, and 61 private patient rooms. Upgrades to the emergency room will include a satellite-imaging center with a CT scanner.
At a separate location in North Concord, a new $35 million, 56,000-square-foot MuirLab core laboratory will soon be constructed on the Northwest corner of Bates Avenue and Commercial Circle. The consolidation of lab work should result in financial savings for the health system, and provide a faster automated method for blood and lab tests.
The new construction will also allow the institute to expand its offerings and will bring in-house tests it currently must outsource, such as a genetic test for breast cancer risk.
Builders
The architect for the Walnut Creek project is Ratcliffe Architecture of Emeryville. Arup Consulting Engineers is the structural engineer, Mazzetti & Associates of San Francisco is the mechanical and electrical engineering firm, and Kier & Wright Civil Engineers & Surveyors Inc. of Pleasanton is the civil engineer.
The contractor is Clark Construction Group Co. of Bethesda, Md., one of the nation's largest construction companies. Jtec Healthcare Construction Management, based in Oakland, is the project manager.
System Structure
The John Muir Health Foundation is the fundraising arm of the health system, which includes: the two hospitals, John Muir Behavioral Health Center (Concord), John Muir Outpatient Centers in Brentwood and the Rossmoor area, and Urgent Care offices in San Ramon, Brentwood, Concord and Walnut Creek. Other facilities are: The Birth Center, Breast Health Centers, Cardiac Rhythm Center, John Muir Diabetes Center, Osteoporosis Clinic, Women's Health Center and Pediatric Resources Medical Group in Walnut Creek.
The health system has medical imaging and land labs in 18 other locations, according to its website. Caring Hands is another affiliated community outreach program for seniors, providing help and services for independent living.
John Muir Health recently joined with Bay Area Surgical Ventures LLC, a partnership with National Surgical Hospitals, Inc and local physicians to develop five facilities, and John Muir/Diablo Occupational Medicine LLC, which is an affiliate of the John Muir Health and Fitness Institute.Some of these entities are nonprofit and some are for profit.
Contributors
The Foundation has a record of raising $2 to $3 million annually for the hospital, but hopes to raise $40 million for the Walnut Creek Campus capital campaign by December 2008.
Contributors had committed more than $27.5 million to the project by the end of January, including the foundation's largest donation ever, that came from Walnut Creek's Thomas J. Long Foundation. The hospital will name its new five-story inpatient tower in Walnut Creek the Thomas J. and Muriel T. Long Patient Care Tower.
The new Intensive Care Nursery in Walnut Creek will also receive $2.5 million from the J.M. Long Foundation.
Other major contributors include Theresa Caygill's $2.5 million donation for the new emergency department, which will be named for her.
"My husband (Dr. Wayne Caygill) was the first physician in Orinda. He later became an ophthalmologist and moved his practice to Oakland," she said. "He was in the emergency (John Muir) several times (as a patient) and was so impressed with his treatment, so it seemed to be a reasonable thing to do."
Don and Sharon Ritchey say they believe in nature as a way of healing. The couple had been financially contributing to the care of interior garden areas of the Walnut Creek Campus. The new project provoked them, and a number of other benefactors, to give more than $1 million to John Muir Health.
"At first we took an interest in naming the rooftop gardens and then we decided to stretch, and take the entire front of the new buildings," Donald Ritchey said. The front garden will be named for Sharon Ritchey.
The Walnut Creek Campus Auxiliary has committed to providing $2.5 million to the capital campaign for the Circular Courtyard feature of the complex. Auxiliary president Barbara Neale said the organization has consistently supported the hospital. She said enthusiasm is as high as ever, reminding a January groundbreaking audience of a time "when ladies went door to door with coffee cans in 1959."
John Muir Health physicians have pledged $1.5 million and employees are contributing $1.3 to the capital campaign. As an incentive to others, Wayne Gladys has offered a challenge grant of $6 million for when the Foundation campaign reaches the $40 million mark.
John Muir Health may offer about $200 million in bonds through the California Statewide Communities Development Authority, which provides local governments and private entities access to tax-exempt financing. So far, they have received a $9.5 million grant toward seismic retrofit work.
History
In the midst of the depression, an altruistic, 23-year-old Canadian nurse named Edna Gallagher Haywood started Concord Hospital in a bungalow with $7,500 borrowed from her father-in-law, who mortgaged his ranch to make it happen.
By the late 1940s, the hospital had grown in size, was admitted to the register of the American Medical Association, and had grown from six, to about 30 beds.
According to Robert Daras Tatum's Old Times in Contra Costa,"In 1952, the hospital came into public ownership under the aegis of the Concord-Pleasant Hill Hospital District."
By the late 1960s the public hospital had grown to 195 beds, and in 1972 the name was changed to Mount Diablo Hospital, then to Mt. Diablo Health Care District.
In the interim, a group of Walnut Creek physicians, 39 hospital auxiliary members and many community supporters raised enough to purchase land in 1959. In 1965, the 150-bed John Muir Medical Center was built.
With voter approval in 1996, the two healthcare facilities were able to merge in 1997. Since then, the Walnut Creek campus has expanded, and a new 53-care Brentwood campus has been established.
(Posted February 21, 2008)