Filling a need
Dothan hospital expands with Women's Center, surgical tower

By Nancy Mann Jackson

For almost half a century, the Southeast Alabama Medical Center in Dothan has served as a regional healthcare facility for the approximately 500,000 people living within its 50-mile radius.

And as its latest expansion project is completed piece by piece, the hospital is serving that population more efficiently, with state-of-the-art equipment, up-to-date technology and modern convenience.

"Before starting this project, we talked to a lot of people in the community and looked at what they wanted and needed," said Mark Stuart, public relations manager for SAMC. "Feedback from the community was very important because our goal is to better serve our community."

advertisement

With its three-year, $54 million project more than halfway finished, the hospital seems to have planned well. It's already offering ancillary services and new programs that weren't possible before the construction project began.

The SAMC expansion project, which began in fall 2001, is scheduled for completion in November 2004.

Skanska Saliba, a joint venture of local contractor Saliba Construction and Atlanta-based Skanska USA, formerly known as Beers Construction, was hired to manage the job. Skanska's healthcare division brought experience in working with medical personnel and expertise in healthcare issues such as infection control.

Saliba, with experience working at SAMC, brought a familiarity with the facility and a firsthand understanding of the community.

Along with Skanska Saliba, other firms from across the Southeast joined to make the expansion a reality. Atlanta-based CCL Associates served as owner's representative and program manager. Perkins and Will, also of Atlanta, served as architectural firm.

Mechanical, plumbing and electrical engineering was awarded to Orlando-based Tilden Lobnitz Cooper, and Birmingham's Lane Bishop York Delahay was responsible for structural and civil engineering for the project.

The plan. The job was divided into four phases. The first, a 340-car concrete parking deck, opened in March 2002. At the same time the parking deck was under construction, a new 60,000-sq.-ft. Women's Center was being added, which opened in March 2003.

That phase included construction of an addition to and build-out of two floors of shell space above the existing emergency department. The new Women's Center includes 20 suites for labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum; well baby and special care nurseries; women's imaging; educational facilities; and related support spaces.

Phase three involved the construction of a new 23,000-sq.-ft. central energy plant, as well as the installation of new and the relocation of existing mechanical and electrical equipment. The new central energy plant opened in February.

A new surgical tower, still under construction, is the fourth phase of the project. The 75,000-sq.-ft. tower will include a new surgical suite with 18 operating rooms, 32 intensive care rooms, associated support spaces, a new loading dock and approximately 11,000 sq. ft. of elevated connector bridges. The tower is scheduled for completion in fall 2004.

The challenges. Because the hospital was originally built in 1957, the team realized there would be obstacles in joining the old and new. "Anytime you deal with an existing hospital, you're going to run into some unknowns," said Randall Summerford, senior project manager for Skanska Saliba.

For instance, the structural engineering team found that it had to determine the exact structure of the existing buildings so it could design a new structure to tie in seamlessly.

"The existing hospital was built in probably half a dozen pieces, so we were piecing together structural drawings since 1950," said Bill Wilson, project manager with Lane Bishop York Delahay. "There had been so many things built and torn down and it was difficult to figure out what we had to work with."

Also, all the hospital's energy systems had to be transferred from the existing energy plant into the new one. "We were relocating the main arteries and heart of the mechanical systems from one place across the street to another," Summerford said.

After building the new facility, the construction team built an underground tunnel that goes underneath the street and ties back into the new surgical tower, which stands in the footprint of the former energy plant. The tunnel serves as a conduit for the hospital's electrical service, steam service, water service and other energy systems.

When it was time to change from the old system to the new one, contractors knew there was never a good time to shut down the entire energy system in a hospital that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Working closely with Skanska Saliba, the hospital brought in bottled water when the water system had to be turned off and tied into the new system. It also opened doors when the cooling system was shut down and brought in tanks of gases when the medical gases such as oxygen or nitrous oxide had to be switched. When the electrical system was being changed, the hospital ran on generators.

"We knew we were going to disrupt the hospital; we just had to find the time that we'd have minimal disruption," Summerford said. "It just takes a lot of planning and making certain allowances."

At the Women's Center, much of the construction involved a build-out of existing empty space above the emergency department.

While installing plumbing for the center, "we were basically in the ceiling of the ER," Summerford said. "We had to phase it in about 18 different phases. We'd take over a small room here, do the work, then take down the partitions and move them to another space to do the work."

Several elevated pedestrian walkways from adjacent structures had to tie into the new Women's Center. Because one of the walkways tied into the existing labor and delivery rooms, "it was a challenge working around when those particular rooms were in use," Summerford added.

"If you have a woman giving birth in the room right next to you, you don't generally go in and beat on the walls and tear things down. That took a lot of coordination with the labor and delivery staff."

The final phase. Although three phases of the SAMC job are complete, the final phase accounts for half the project budget and will take another year to complete. The surgical tower will require "building a new five-story tower on a relatively small footprint," LBYD's Wilson said.

Part of the job involves building on top of plates mounted on existing steel columns, which form a north-south bridge across the entire hospital. "We found out the first plate wasn't attached as it should have been when the hospital was built," Summerford said. "So now we have to go through and survey all the plates to verify that they have been installed structurally correct, according to what we need for our project."