New Hospital Design Unveiled

November 15, 2011

In case you weren’t glued to SunTV Thursday night, watching our Sonoma Valley Health Care District board meeting, I want to let you know the great news. We are a giant step closer to our new Emergency Room and upgraded hospital!

Last Thursday, with 70 percent of the construction documents completed, we brought the entire facilities upgrade project to the board of directors. What we presented, in detail, with visual renderings, is a warm, inviting hospital with a state of the art emergency and surgical facility, a healing atmosphere and design conducive to patient-centered care. After listening to detailed presentations by the architect and the builder, the board enthusiastically and unanimously gave us the go-ahead to proceed. 

We have kept the board apprised of our progress on a regular basis, so there were no real surprises, but this was the first time they got to see the whole, completed design concept, and hear from the architect and construction team just how right for Sonoma the final design for the new facility will be. We’ve shown them the total project and the total cost for the entire renovation, most of which will be paid for by the Bond Measure, as planned. Thanks to the design-build process, we were able to bring in the base cost for the project at $23 million and a total cost of $36.7 million. We presented the board with a complete and detailed itemization of all costs, along with the final design resolution, of which we are all quite proud.

As you know, over the years it has taken to complete the design, we have been through many versions from a big box stuck out on the front of the building, containing the Central Utility Plant, to a glamorous entrance stuck on to the old building.  Not until now have we had an integrated design that satisfies the State’s seismic mandate, takes care of the needed infrastructure upgrades, and gives us a state of the art ER and OR building – with entrance and gardens that work with not only with the rest of the structure but with our whole philosophy of health care. Not only does this design raise our emergency and surgical capabilities to state of the art level, but it brings our facility up to the standard set by of some of Sonoma’s finest public facilities. The design says, “Sonoma,” and the feeling says “Healing” and the result will be a facility that should be the preferred hospital for our community. I am so proud of our team.

I invite you to study, in detail, the presentation we made to the board, and review where we’ve come from and see where we’re going.  I look forward to sharing this exciting new phase of Sonoma Valley Hospital’s growth with you!

Till next time,

-Kelly Mather,

Chief Executive Officer,
Sonoma Valley Hospital