Clovis hospital aims for upgrade

Clovis Community Medical Center would nearly triple in size over the next 10 years under a plan being proposed by Community Medical Centers.

The hospital has 10-year and 25- to 30-year growth plans that are under review by the city of Clovis. Certification of an environmental study, which is a requirement for such proposed developments, will be discussed June 17 by the Clovis Planning Commission.

The commission will forward a recommendation to the Clovis City Council on whether the plans should move ahead.

Clovis Community Medical Center now measures 242,850 square feet; a two-story, $22 million project that will include new operating rooms is under way. The project will expand the medical center to about 265,000 square feet when it’s finished later this year. It’s expected to open in January, said Craig Castro, the hospital’s chief executive officer.

In the 10-year plan, Community Medical Centers also plans to build a four-story tower that will house emergency and surgical services, new offices, a parking structure and a new helicopter landing pad. That plan will nearly double the number of hospital beds, from 109 to 208.

Under the plan, the hospital will nearly triple in size to more than 739,000 square feet.

Clovis Mayor Harry Armstrong said the expansion fills a need for the city, which has tripled in size since the hospital opened in 1988.

“It will mean more doctors and more high-paying jobs and other related facilities that go along with it,” he said.

City Manager Kathy Million said the expansion is one of the few developments under way at a time when other developments have been stalled by the sagging economy.

“Expansion is really needed, and it will be fully used,” she said.

Other developments are on the horizon. In July, planning commissioners will discuss a proposed 153-acre expansion of the city’s 18-acre Research and Technology Park, which sits on the other side of Highway 168 along Temperance and Alluvial avenues.

The medical center and technology park are part of the city’s long-range vision for an employment center in the northeast part of Clovis.

The environmental document being reviewed by the Planning Commission reports that traffic will increase because of the expansion, but the hospital plans to pay its share for traffic signals and to widen nearby roads, including Herndon Avenue.

Under the 25- to 30-year plan, the hospital will add a second four-story tower, bringing the number of beds to 358 and pushing the hospital to more than 1.1 million square feet in size.