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Tri-City Medical Center Seeks Final OK for $778M Seismic Retrofit

Spending $778 million should provide Tri-City Medical Center with the seismic retrofit and building renovations that the aging hospital needs to maintain its role as the primary acute-care facility in North County.

The present six members of the Tri-City Healthcare District board unanimously selected the second alternative , the least expensive of the three design concepts , during the last week of November.

At the regular board meeting on Dec. 13, the selected design will be approved.

Most of the buildings at the 397-bed acute-care medical center were built in the late ’60s. The hospital, which provides care to Carlsbad, Oceanside and Vista, opened in 1961.

Floor plans, construction timeline and 3-D model will be presented at the meeting.

The hospital hopes to build two new wings, as well as the high-tech possibilities for the facility, according to Sarah Jensen, president of Los Angeles-based Jensen + Partners, one of the two consulting firms brought on board in July.

The other firm is Minneapolis-based HGA Architects and Engineers. The combined team of HGA-Jensen has 15 people working on the Tri-City plan, as well as a dozen or more consulting experts that were brought on, Jensen said.

It’s a fairly average number of staff members for a project of this size, she added.

The proposed design would expand the emergency department, create an urgent care center and increase the intensive care unit capacity. It is also the design with the earliest completion date.

Without the resources possessed by hospitals run by larger companies, Tri-City Medical Center turned to bond measures to raise the necessary funding, said Jeff Segall, director of public affairs at the medical center.

In June 2006, the bond fell short by 400 votes of being passed. The cost then was roughly $600 million. (This time around, one alternative required $807 million while another asked for $918 million.)

According to HGA-Jensen, hospital costs have increased an average of 17.5 percent from 2003 to 2006 and the cost per square foot for hospitals in Southern California has jumped from $200 to just over $600 during a 17-year span.

After losing another election by a larger margin , around 1,500 votes , the board decided to open up the process to the public, arranging hearings for specific community groups that provided feedback to the medical center and the supporting consulting team, according to Frances Ridlehoover, managing partner at Jensen + Partners.

“We decided to do some things differently,” Segall said. “Before, the board did everything behind closed doors.”

Throughout the fall, public hearings specific to the business community, schools and parent-teacher associations, the senior community and Tri-City Medical Center staff members were scheduled.

With a 2013 deadline looming, the medical center has to ensure that four wings of the facility have been retrofitted to meet the new seismic standards. If not, the hospital may face closure under SB 1953.

But if construction is “well under way by 2010, we’ll be in good shape,” Jensen said. The two firms are contracted until March 2008, while completion is tentatively set for July 2017.

Changes to parking and the relocation of the hospital entrance were just two suggestions from the community forums that were incorporated into the selected alternative.

A silver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating from the U.S. Green Building Council is also possible under this design, said Jensen.

Plan A asked for only 25 percent of new construction, but would have retained all the double-occupancy rooms and would not attempt LEED certification.

Alternative plan C, the most expensive of the three plans, called for 70 percent of new construction.

The plan chosen called for 50 percent of new construction, but would retain the North Wing and Central Complex, which would undergo “relatively light-handed cosmetic renovation,” Jensen said.

What makes the Tri-City Medical Center’s modernization unique is the role that the hospital plays in the local community.

“It’s a bit of an island in North County,” Jensen said. ” It’s a mainstay of the North County disaster response network.”

With other hospital projects that she had worked on of a similar nature, previous issues had more to do with hospitals staying competitive with surrounding facilities as opposed to simply serving the community.

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