Baptist Memorial Hospital DeSoto, Southaven, Miss.

A $175 million patient tower will be the centerpiece of Baptist Memorial Hospital DeSoto of Southaven, Miss., when it's finished in September 2006.

The general contractor, Bovis Lend Lease of Nashville, began working on the 10-story, 226-bed tower in February 2004, said senior project manager Paul Moffat.

Baptist Memorial will transfer several of its services including operating rooms and intensive-care units from its current three-story hospital into the new 451,000-sq.-ft. building.

The construction cost is $104 million and the furnishings account for about $71 million, Moffat said.

He added that during the project, access will be maintained to the emergency room, which is in front of the existing hospital and the site where the tower is being built.

"We've had to build a lot of temporary roads and then move them around as we continued with construction," he said.

Moffat said the company is using the 2000 International Building Code for the tower, "so all of our shafts are sitting anywhere between 50 and 85 ft. deep."

Williamson Medical Center, Franklin, Tenn.

The most difficult assignment in a $60 million major renovation and addition project to the Williamson Medical Center in Franklin, Tenn., was adding two floors to the top of the four-floor hospital.

"We had to maintain water tightness and air-quality controls," while dealing with the weather, said Scott Gentry, project manager of the Medical Construction Group of Nashville.

The two new floors account for 50,000 sq. ft. and will be completed in December.

Other projects at the hospital include constructing a 180,000-sq.-ft. medical office building for the hospital's administration and outpatient surgery rooms, which was completed in January.

The hospital also is adding 10,000 sq. ft. to its main lobby, Gentry said.

Some of the top renovation projects include a facelift for the emergency room. All the phases of the projects, which started in September 2002, should be finished by April 2007, Gentry said.

St. Vincent's Hospital Women and Children's Center, Birmingham.

Brasfied & Gorrie of Birmingham finished the $42 million, 11-story St. Vincent's Hospital North Tower in October. The tower sits next to the hospital's Women and Children's Center.

The tower measures 338,000 sq. ft., 250,000 sq. ft. of which is a 518-vehicle parking deck, said Mike Dunn, project manager for Brasfied & Gorrie.

Floors on top of the parking deck are used for a labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum rooms. There are also rooms for outpatient diagnostic and surgery. The tower features three floors of doctor's offices.

Construction began in September 2002.

The cast stone, brick and glass building was built "hard against" the existing Women and Children's Center, which was occupied full time, making it a challenge to build, Dunn said.

Dunn said he was in constant communication with the various hospital departments to make sure the construction company didn't interfere with patient care by making too much noise. Patients were transferred from floors where construction was occurring.

The construction company and the hospital also agreed what times of day were best to do work.

"That was one of the obstacles, too," Dunn added. "The schedule could not be lengthened due to this. It had to be maintained."

Summit Hospital, Phenix City, Ala.

Brasfield & Gorrie of Birmingham began construction of a $36 million, 70-bed hospital in January in Phenix City, Ala.

Summit Hospital, a new 110,000-sq.-ft. building, will be completed in January 2006, said Summit Hospital spokesman Bob Bartelf.

An existing 200-bed hospital in Phenix City closed in 2003, Bartelf said.

"So the government officials got together and determined that there was a need to have a health-care facility in the town," he added.

Features of the four-floor hospital include six operating rooms, an eight-bed intensive-care unit and a 24-hour emergency room designed to support 30,000 visits a year. There also will be room for expansion of the hospital that sits on 16 acres.

Ameris Health Systems of Nashville is the owner of the hospital and will employee between 350 and 400 workers, making it one of the city's largest employers, Bartelf said.

Cumberland Medical Center, Crossville, Tenn.

In November, Hospital Affiliates Development Corp. of Brentwood, Tenn., began working on several renovation projects and an addition to the Cumberland Medical Center in Crossville, Tenn.

The centerpiece of the $31 million project is the construction of a five-floor, 137,373-sq.-ft. patient tower, said John Galassini, project manager of general contractor Robins & Morton Group of Brentwood.

It is also adding a medical records wing, which comes in at 8,812 sq. ft. and renovating patient rooms, which accounts for about 11,600 sq. ft., Galassini said.

The construction crews started work in November and should be finished in October 2006.

The most difficult part of the project will be building the steel patient tower, which is close to the other three hospital buildings at the site, Galassini said.

To solve any problems that might rise during construction, there will be a lot of planning to make sure patients are kept safe and not disturbed during construction.

"(We've) not only got to keep (the hospital) operational, but we've got to keep the work progressing," Galassini said.

Baptist Golden Triangle Hospital, Columbus, Miss.

In October 2003, Inman Construction Corp. of Memphis began working on a $24.6 million, 152-bed patient tower for Baptist Golden Triangle Hospital in Columbus, Miss.

"It's built in the shape of a cross," said Richard Wanko, project manager for Inman Construction. "The outer wings have a sixth floor and the roof is the seventh floor."

On the inside of the interior portion of the 153,000-sq.-ft. tower, there is no sixth floor and the roof is the sixth floor.

"It is designed to allow them to add on in the future if they would like," Wanko added.

The tower, which will be used for prenatal and labor and delivery care, features two cesarean-section rooms and 10 labor and delivery rooms. It was completed in February.

The tower stands alone, but it has two corridors that connect to Baptist Hospital.

Wanko said he had to coordinate with the hospital for the best time to drill piers so it wouldn't interfere with hospital operations.

Medical Center East, Birmingham.

A $23 million, 213,000-sq.-ft. medical office building at Medical Center East in Birmingham will be completed by May.

In January 2004, Brasfield & Gorrie of Birmingham began construction on the six-story brick veneer building. The building is attached to the hospital and has two patient drop-off canopies, said Jeff Decker, project manager for Brasfield & Gorrie.

Decker said the building is currently 50 percent leased and is several months ahead of its original scheduled completion date in October.

"We really didn't run into any problems with the foundation work," he added. "It was a drilled caisson foundation. The entire structure was slab-on-grade concrete, columns and concrete beams."

He said his construction company made up a majority of the time by self-performing the concrete work.

Decker added the biggest challenge was coordinating construction deliveries down the only access road to the site, which needed to stay open so patients could get to the hospital.

Chicot Memorial Hospital, Lake Village, Ark.

In March 2004, Alberici Construction Co. of St. Louis began working on a $10 million addition and renovation project at Chicot Memorial Hospital in Lake Village, Ark.

The highlight of the work is a 45,000-sq.-ft. addition to the hospital, said Alberici's project manager Fred Emmenegger.

When the work is finished in December, the hospital will have 41 new beds and two operating rooms in the structural steel building.

"It will have everything a full-size hospital has," Emmenegger said.

Alberici also is renovating the old hospital to add a new kitchen and conference rooms.