Big Plans for Sacred Heart Hospital
June 15, 2011 1:21 pm
Sacred Heart Health System is undertaking a four-year, $57 million expansion project that will add 112 private patient rooms and is expected to create 150 new jobs.
The construction project, announced Tuesday by CEO Laura Kaiser, will add five stories to the hospital's existing Heart and Vascular Institute located on the main North Ninth Avenue campus.
Greenhut Construction Co., the general contractor for most of the hospital's projects, will be in charge of this project, expected to break ground next spring.
The additional 112 rooms — 40 of which will be for critical-care patients — will bring Sacred Heart's total bed count to nearly 600.
Kaiser said the expansion is being driven by anticipated growth of Northwest Florida's population, and especially as a result of the rapidly increasing health care needs of the region's aging "baby boom generation."
"We have a pressing need right now for additional beds, especially for critically ill patients and other adult patients with acute-care needs," she said.
The first 68 beds are expected to be ready for patients by 2014. The remaining 44 beds will be added in 2015-16.
Because of the hospital's high patient census count over the past several years, a Certificate of Need from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration is not required, spokesman Mike Burke said.
Sacred Heart's chief operating officer, Carol Schmidt, said the anticipated 150 new health care jobs will be created across the board, to include physicians, nurses, lab technicians, housekeepers and food servers.
In addition to the five-story tower atop the Heart and Vascular building, the expansion plan also calls for more parking spaces and replacement of key systems, such as heating and air conditioning, that support hospital operations.
George Hawthorne, executive director of the Gulf Coast African American Chamber of Commerce, asked Kaiser during the press conference if there will be a viable "minority inclusion" element for qualified subcontractors.
"Greenhut is incorporating that into his construction plan," Kaiser said.
The news of Sacred Heart's expansion, in light of recent Medicaid cuts to its funding and a soft local economy, was welcome news to a number of local business and political leaders. The hospital is facing a $9.5 million cut in its annual Medicaid reimbursements by the State of Florida. Mayor Ashton Hayward thanked Sacred Heart "for its investment in the Pensacola community."
Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Jim Hizer said the project will be a key element in advancing the region's quality of life and promoting economic development.
"The more health care investment we have in Northwest Florida, the higher quality of life we will have and the less we will see people having to leave the area to get their health care needs met," Hizer said.
Chamber Chairman-elect Donnie McMahon called Sacred Heart's announcement a "breath of fresh air" and a project that "will put a lot of people to work."
