In 2013, Kadlec Regional Medical Center (KRMC) completed a Community Needs Assessment that advised to increase patient capacity as their community grew. However due to campus constraints, the only opportunity was to build vertically upon the existing campus. Davis Partnership Architects, its design consultants and Bouten Construction Company were selected to construct a new 90,000 square foot, 94-bed patient tower on top of their existing, fully occupied, six-story inpatient tower without disrupting ongoing hospital operations.
In November 2016, the 4-story addition to the patient tower named “River Pavilion” was complete. Two of the floors provide a total of 54 acute care patient rooms, and the other two floors provide a total of 40 intensive care patient rooms, all with expansive views to the Columbia River Basin. Each patient room is private with its own toilet and shower room, with various spaces for family members to gather, rest, and consult with the healthcare team. As a Planetree-designated facility, family support is a major component of patient care at Kadlec.
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Auxiliary features of the patient tower included a roof top helipad for emergency transportation and an outdoor roof terrace to provide a place of respite for patients, family and staff. This much desired connection to the outdoors shares a variety of seating options, shade structures, water features and vegetation outside the healthcare setting.
If building on top of a fully operational inpatient tower was not enough of a challenge for this design and construction team, the hospital needed to replace two generators, paralleling switchgear and transfer switches in the Central Utility Plant (CUP). Again, while maintaining a fully operational hospital open 24/7, 365 days per year. Due to the landlocked nature of the existing campus, a new CUP was not an option. The design, construction and Owner team knew that, and it would take innovative, thoughtful, and meticulous solutions to solve the issues they faced.
Our team took on the challenge and creatively orchestrated a unique, 15-phase plan to replace KRMC’s two 1500kW generators with new 2500kW generators and provide new paralleling switchgear and transfer switches in place. Each facet of the project required extraordinary coordination at the highest levels with project managers, hospital staff, Owner representatives, contractors, and facilities managers.
With surgical precision, the design team worked with the stakeholders and the contractor to choreograph an unparalleled process for replacing the electrical system and constructing the four-story patient tower addition, without sacrificing any of the hospital’s ongoing functionality.