The Española Hospital could break ground on a new building as soon as next spring.
“This is part of a plan we’re developing for how we want the Hospital to look like as it grows over the long term,” Hospital Administrator Brenda Romero said.
The Hospital has asked a consultant to develop a plan for growth at the Hospital over the next 20 years, Romero said. Closest on the horizon in those plans is a new, two-story building, Romero said.
Romero emphasized plans for the building are still in the early stages; blueprints and cost estimates have not yet been developed. Romero said a ground-breaking could happen as soon as next April or as late as two years from now, but she hopes construction to be complete within five years.
Tentative plans call for moving the e first floor of the new building, which would also house an expanded radiology department and a new surgical unit, Romero said. The Hospital’s pediatric and intensive care units would move to the new building’s second floor, and the basement could house an expanded dietary department, Romero said.
Romero said construction would “probably” require relocating the Hospital’s helicopter pad, but she was not sure where. It is currently on the northeast corner of the Hospital property.
Brad Treptow, a spokesman for Presbyterian Medical Group, the Hospital’s parent company, declined to comment further on upcoming construction.
“The Board is just discussing this right now,” Treptow said. “Once we have something more concrete, we’ll be glad to share more information.”
Most Hospital construction is funded by a Rio Arriba County mil levy that raises about $8.1 million a year, according to County Assessor records.
The most recent addition to the Hospital using County mil levy funds was a new $1.3 million sleep disorder study center that opened in March, Hospital practice administrator Jim Breland said.
Patients stay overnight at the center and technicians monitor their breathing, heart rate and other bodily functions with electrodes, cameras and other equipment while they sleep. The exams are used to diagnose potentially crippling sleep disorders like apnea and narcolepsy.
The Hospital previously conducted sleep studies in four rooms in the main hospital wing, Breland said. Those were displaced to make room for a second-floor renovation and expansion of patient-care rooms.
An old clinic room at the northwest corner of the Hospital was renovated to house the new six-room center, Breland said.
“Where in the previous center the rooms were regular hospital rooms, here they’re much more patient friendly, more like hotel rooms,” Breland said.
The rooms feature flat-screen TVs, private bathrooms and state-of-the-art monitoring equipment, Breland said.
Breland said the new center is working on getting accredited by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, a six-to-nine month process. Becoming accredited may help the center seek reimbursement from certain health insurance companies, such as Lovelace, Breland said.