ZZZ - GMG - Construction Las Vegas 2014-2015

Fall 2015 - Construction Las Vegas

Construction Las Vegas - Greenspun Media Group

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47 CONSTRUCTION LAS VEGAS CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR P R O J E C T O F T H E Y E A R KITCHELL DIGNITY ST. ROSE DOMINICAN HOSPITALS-SIENA CAMPUS Since the completion of its first hospital project in Phoenix in the 1950s, Arizona-based contractor Kitchell has emerged as a leading health care builder in the Southwest. With a passion for health care construction and a special understanding of the challenges associ- ated with medical center projects, Kitchell is also a local leader in this niche arena, having worked on five of the major health care campuses in Southern Nevada since opening an office here in 1994 —Sunrise Hospital & Medical Center, Southern Hills Hospital & Medical Center, MountainView Hospital and St. Rose Domini- can Hospitals' Siena and San Martin campuses. "We're a little different from some of the other (con- struction firms) in that we don't chase every piece of new business, but rather carefully select our clients and then try and do multiple projects on their behalf," said Mike Walsh, project director for Kitchell, which has operations in Arizona, California, Texas and California. "Although we've done all kinds of projects throughout the Las Vegas Valley, we're probably best known here for our work in health care." Kitchell's most recent efforts in this specialized field of construction — which is replete with a unique set of challenges, not to mention regulatory guidelines — has earned the company recognition for Project of the Year for its major expansion work at Dignity Health's St. Rose Dominican Hospitals-Siena campus, a $97 million design/build project, completed in multiple phases, that included an expansion of the Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, a new parking structure and the much-anticipated new 220,000-square-foot, five-story tower, which will offer an additional 96 private rooms — bringing the total at the Siena campus to 326 — 56 emergency bays, six new operating suites and expanded services for admitting, nutrition services, radiology, lab, pharmacy, endoscopy suites and other support services. "e tower is really Phase ree, and the one every- body has been waiting for," said Walsh, adding that the first-floor emergency room was completed two months ahead of schedule. "e hospital was looking at the demand, and the CEO walked us through asked if there was anything we could do to open the ER early." Walsh said Kitchell relied on pre-assembly whenever possible, including the pre-fabrication of 45,000 square feet of exterior skin panels; headwalls — "the area behind the beds with all the clinical stuff," Walsh said — for 88 patient rooms, 37 ED treatment rooms, 24 PACU and 20 other areas; and 335 pre-piped VAV packages with controls. "is helped us turn over part of the hospital sooner, with a smaller dedicated crew, and less workers on lad- ders working overhead with the potential for incidents," he said. "With the skin panels, we brought the pre-fab- ricated sections over and bolted them to the structure, and in four days it looked like we had an instant build- ing. It was pretty amazing." Also remarkable? "We've done upgrades to the mechanical and electrical systems, and even with the new tower expansion, the hospital will have the same power bill it's always had, which is pretty amazing when you consider the energy usage of a hospital in a harsh desert climate," Walsh said, adding that the neonatal unit also presented a particular set of challenges. e new unit, he said, was constructed on an older section of the hospital that was never intended for expansion, a concern that was addressed with the use of reinforced steel columns. "We were also working right over the existing neonatal unit, so we had to be mindful of noise, vibration and dust, so we wouldn't disrupt these babies fighting for their lives," Walsh said. Indeed, Joseph M. Sandy, RN, hospital supervisor, interim operations director and tower transition coor- dinator, credits Kitchell for its ability to work with the St. Rose team to minimize the disruption and effect on patient care. "e team at Kitchell fully appreciates and under- stands that our focus on patients is the number one priority," Sandy said. "e Kitchell team has displayed three important values of our mission statement — stewardship, integrity and dignity — (and) I have never met a construction team that displays these values in parallel as well as they do. I tip my hat to the Kitchell team and look forward to working with them now and in the future." — Danielle Birkin CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR AWARDS 2015

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