Clovis hospital announces huge expansion

 

	Renderings as of Oct. 1, 2009. Subject to change.

Clovis Community Medical Center today announced plans to move forward with a four-year, $285 million expansion and renovation that will nearly double the hospital’s capacity and convert the entire facility to private patient rooms.

The massive construction project will increase the hospital’s 109 inpatient beds to 205 private beds, increase intensive-care beds from 7 to 24, increase emergency-department stations from 13 to 38 and expand the number of inpatient operating rooms from 4 to 11.

Clovis Community is part of the locally owned, nonprofit Community Medical Centers system. The Clovis project is the largest expansion investment the system has made since it spent a similar amount nearly a decade ago to construct the six-story trauma and critical care building at Community Regional Medical Center in downtown Fresno.

“Clearly, the size of this investment demonstrates the Community system’s long-term commitment to physicians and patients in one of the Valley’s fastest growing regions,” said Craig Castro, Clovis Community’s chief executive officer.

Upon completion in fall 2013, Clovis Community will be the first comprehensive, full-service hospital in the region to have all private rooms, nearly tripling in size to 739,000 square feet.

“The expansion will give Clovis- and Fresno-area families one of the most convenient and most technologically advanced hospitals in the country,” Castro said. “When we’re finished, the private patient rooms in the new and existing towers will have the latest in medical and consumer electronics.”

The expansion calls for a new, five-story bed tower, a dedicated women’s pavilion, a special care nursery and a new parking structure. The emergency department will also be expanded to accommodate a projected 50,000 patient visits annually.

“But even more immediately,” Castro said, “this project will be a big plus for the local economy. And it’s coming at the perfect time.”

Community officials project the inpatient expansion project to supply work for about 4,000 construction people over four years, with the overwhelming majority of those workers being local. The benefit will be felt soon, officials said, with groundbreaking expected in February.

“It could be the single largest job-creation project in Fresno County over the next several years,” Castro said, noting that once expansion is completed, it’s likely to generate surrounding development to support a growing work force.

The expansion will ultimately create nearly 600 new hospital jobs with an average salary of $86,000 per year.

Community has secured financing to cover most of the project’s cost and ensure groundbreaking, said Community CEO Tim Joslin, but private gifts will be needed to complete the vision.

“The project will further strengthen the Community network of three hospitals, supplying the additional operating rooms and beds needed to ensure that both essential and elective procedures can be scheduled and performed promptly as the region’s population continues to grow,” Joslin said.

Clovis Community’s service area is projected to see a population increase of 15,000 within the next five years and a 43% increase in overall growth in the next 20 years.

“Area residents ages 45 to 64 and 65-plus are predicted to have the most aggressive growth rates,” Castro said. “These two groups also have the highest inpatient utilization rates, which translates into the need for more hospital beds.”

News of this expansion comes while Clovis Community is preparing to open a two-story, 22,500-square-foot addition to the outpatient care center that has been under construction for the past year. It includes expansion of the Marjorie E. Radin Breast Care Center and the most advanced (Level 3) fertility center between Los Angeles and Sacramento, as well as new operating rooms.

The expansion projects are part of Community’s 10-year growth plan, and the 25- to 30-year growth plan calls for even more additions – a second five-story bed tower bringing Clovis Community to 358 beds and 1.1 million square feet.

Clovis Community will remain fully operational during construction, and has added free valet parking for patient convenience.

This story was reported by Eddie Hughes. He can be reached at eddieh@communitymedical.org.