Board okays project manager for Hospital upgrade

The project manager for the Sonoma Valley Hospital facility upgrade, the firm responsible for everything from design to the final ribbon-cutting in 2013, was approved by unanimous vote of the Sonoma Valley Health Care District Board of Directors at its meeting Wednesday night.
Winning the job was the Oakland-based Jtec Healthcare Construction Management. The firm, for an estimated fee of $1,162,000, takes immediate control of the project and some $30 million in bond money. “They will become part of our community for four years,” said hospital CEO Carl Gerlach.
The search focused in February with a request for proposals. Of 27 interested organizations, 12 submitted proposals. Board member Peter Hohorst, a member of the facility advisory committee, said Jtec was the unanimous choice of that search committee among both the initial 12 candidates and the ensuing short list of four firms. The criteria included prior experience with similar projects, particularly the detailed infrastructure of small hospitals, and expertise in guiding the project through the many approval processes along the way.
“The biggest challenge is with the regulatory agencies,” Jtec President James Lennon told the meeting. “Planning is the most important aspect to deal with that. The construction is then an extension of that plan.”
Gerlach said the firm came to the table with impressive awareness of Sonoma’s situation and showed great insight during the interview process. Serving onsite as “the owner’s representative” for the upgrade will be Jtec’s Steve Smith. His day-to-day contact at the hospital will be COO David Hill, who himself has been on the job not yet a month.
Jtec’s fee is initially $262,000 per month. The figure ramps up in 2011 when construction is expected to begin. The bid calls for 7,618 hours of professional support and represents about 3.7% of the estimated budget for upgrades, a figure Gerlach said was in line with similar projects elsewhere. The contract will include a 30-day out clause.
Gerlach said that while negotiations continue regarding performance incentives, Jtec is essentially on the clock, “starting now. We need to move.”
Also on the agenda: The Board heard recommendations for improving women’s health services from consultant and author Dr. Celeste Phillips, president of Phillips+Fenwick, located in Santa Cruz. Her findings “rocked my perception of health care,” Gerlach admitted.
While nobody on the board or its finance committee has called for the outright elimination of maternity services at the hospital, a growing concern about declining department revenue lead to the commission of Phillips’ study. Her advice: “Change the perception, change the reality.”
As a base for the image make-over, she urged the adoption of a family-centered philosophy. “It’s not about the hospital. It’s about the mother, and the baby.” Indeed, happy babies may be the ultimate marketing tool. For about 40 percent of families, hospitalization for birth is their first hospital experience. Making that visit a positive one pays off down the road; one significant study shows that a third of obstetric patients return for other services within three years, and one quarter refer a family member within three years.
U.S. women spend $43.3 billion on female specific conditions each year, and also make most healthcare decisions. “When women are happy, families will follow,” said Phillips.
She sees all aspects of women’s healthcare – bone, breast and heart health, for example – as spokes of a wheel, with maternity services at its center. Provide a quality birthing experience, and the patients will come. “There isn’t a woman who wouldn’t have wanted that, or who wouldn’t wish that for her daughter.”
For Phillips, the hospital’s first impression is not a good one. “I’ll be straight with you,” she said. “It looks like a Motel 6. There’s much more to it, but we have to look good. This isn’t fluff, it isn’t feathers. It’s fact.”
She recommended remodeling and upgrading the current unit to become the only Single Room Maternity Care program in the area. Another critical point, the consensus of local focus groups, is to recruit a female OB/GYN to be a second provider. “Women want a choice, and often they choose a woman.”
Phillips also said that the drastic step of shuttering maternity services is not a true option. “If you shut down, they’d sit in the parking lot until it was time, then come in to emergency.” The bigger question, she said, is “shall we take care of women or not?”
Though “we hope to hit the streets with this program by September,” according to Phillips, the study is ongoing. Phillips will present recommendations on other aspects of women’s health services at future meetings.