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Bond-Financed Construction is Continuing at Sharp Grossmont Hospital

The Grossmont Healthcare District (GHD), a public agency, is continuing with construction of several infrastructure improvement projects at Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa.

Construction activity at the hospital is being financed by Proposition G, a $247 million bond measure passed by East County voters on the June 2006 ballot. The ballot measure passed by more than 77 percent, well over the two-thirds required. As proposed in the hospital’s Facilities Master Site Plan, Proposition G is funding construction work at the publicly-owned hospital, which opened in 1955. The bond-financed construction began in 2007, and is scheduled to continue over the next several years.

Heart and Vascular Center

Construction of the 71,000-square-foot building’s outer shell is roughly 60 percent complete as of end of 2014. The $60 million, three-story center will expand the hospital’s surgery capabilities with new cardiac catheterization labs and multipurpose procedural rooms that can support a wide range of specialties, including general surgery, minimally invasive surgery and image-guided surgery, as well as endovascular interventional procedures. The new center will provide state-of-the-art technology and added capacity to treat patients. In addition to the building, construction phases will include a loading dock and materials receiving department, an upgraded pharmacy and laboratory and expansion of the surgical floor. Completion of the building is scheduled for mid-2015. Completion of the surgical floor is scheduled for mid-2017.

Central Energy Plant (CEP)

Construction is approximately 85 percent complete as of end of 2014. The $47 million, two-story plant will help meet future energy capacity needs of the hospital. The new plant equipment is in place for startup and testing, including the 4.4-megawatt Combustion Turbine Generator (CTG) weighing 52 tons. The building structure includes 131 tons of reinforced steel rods or bars surrounded by 4.23 million pounds of concrete with a 106-by-70-foot concrete foundation slab that is four feet thick. The CEP also will contain a new control room that will monitor heating and refrigeration equipment, medical air and vacuum pumps. The 18,000-square-foot plant also will house new emergency generators, boilers, chillers, cooling towers and auxiliary systems, along with a new cogeneration energy system funded by Sharp HealthCare. The new co-gen unit will provide up to 95 percent of Grossmont Hospital’s needed electricity through on-site generation. Although the cogeneration equipment is not part of bond-related construction, the project will complement the planned efficiencies of the Central Energy Plant and help save millions of dollars in energy costs, plus reduce the hospital’s emission of greenhouse gas pollutants by 90 percent. Completion of the CEP is scheduled for late 2015.

East Tower

Construction is roughly 65 percent complete as of end of 2014. Costs for remodeling improvements on this building, originally constructed in 1974, are budgeted at $41 million. Patient rooms will be upgraded to create additional private rooms, improved restrooms, utilities and finishes to provide a more comfortable patient experience. New rooms will be compliant with the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) and bariatric accessibility. Central work stations will be reconfigured and upgraded to accommodate the computerized workflow. Mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems will be modernized with new lighting throughout the floors. Five existing elevators will be upgraded with mechanical and cosmetic improvements. Seismic retrofit of the East Tower will comply with the California Building Code for hospital buildings. Improvements made on floors 2 and 3 were completed during 2014. Upgrades to floors 4 and 5 are expected to be completed by early 2016.

The Grossmont Healthcare District, a public agency that supports various health-related community programs and services in San Diego’s East County region, was formed in 1952 to build and operate Grossmont Hospital. The District is governed by a five-member board of directors, each representing more than 500,000 people residing within San Diego East County’s 750 square miles. For more information about GHD, visit www.grossmonthealthcare.org.

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