8/13/09
Three months after the state approved occupancy at a multi-agency health building six years in the works, only one tenant has moved in so far.
The Rio Arriba County Health Commons had been originally conceived as a four-building complex that would house several health providers under one roof. The project has been downsized for now to only one building due to funding problems, and the number of potential tenants has dwindled to three.
That first building was supposed to be finished by mid-2008 for $2.88 million. Almost a year and at least 12 changes to its contract later, Blue Sky Builders partly finished it this past June for a total cost of $3.25 million.
That first phase of construction, which consists of a lobby and two office wings located on 10 acres of Rio Arriba-County owned land on Industrial Park Road, has been state-approved for occupancy since May 13, according to documents. But three months later, only one of the building’s three tenants — the County’s own Health and Human Services Department — has so far started moving in, and that was until last week.
El Centro Family Health, a Northern New Mexico non-profit health agency based in Española, plans to move in three offices next week, but will have to wait until next year, when the rest of the building is finished, to move in its health clinics. A third tenant, the state Health Department, has yet to even set a moving date.
Las Cumbres Community Services once planned to move into the Health Commons, but pulled out in early 2006 and started making plans for a facility on Northern New Mexico College’s campus. That project has not yet started construction.
County officials offered differing accounts of why its County staff delayed moving in until last week.
“(County Health Director Lauren Reichelt) refused to move,” County Grants and Contracts Administrator Phillip Morfin said. “They were trying to close out some federal grants, and she refused to move until they finished. I guess since when you move your phone extensions change and stuff like that.”
In late June, Morfin had said occupancy would be delayed until sometime in July when fiber optic phone and data lines would be installed and locks would be changed to comply with federal medical privacy laws.
Reichelt pointed to the lack of phone and data lines as the main reason behind the delay.
“A lot of it was that IT stuff,” she said. “I think they just finished working on that. (Morfin) came by last week and said, ‘You guys are moving.’”
But she agreed with Morfin that her department did not want to move earlier.
“I don’t like to do anything disruptive during the last quarter of a grant year,” Reichelt said.
The County Department plans to be fully moved in and ready to receive patients in the east wing of the Health Commons building sometime this month, Reichelt said. The state Health Department will mostly occupy the west wing, case manager Amber Leichtle said.
But state Health Department Regional Director Susan Gonzales declined “to even speculate” on when it will move from its current facility in San Pedro to the Health Commons’ west wing, state Health Department spokesman Chris Minnick said.
“They’re still working out some logistical issues,” Minnick said.
El Centro, whose former chief operating officer was the first to lobby for the Health Commons in 2003, plans to occupy three offices at the Health Commons, plus most of an unfinished wing of medical clinics, El Centro Executive Director Lore Pease said.
Pease said El Centro has a provisional lease that would allow it to move in immediately. El Centro is waiting for the installation of a high-speed Internet line that Pease hopes will be up and running within a week, she said. El Centro’s permanent lease still needs to be approved by the state.
The third wing of the Health Commons building, where El Centro eventually plans to move most of its operations, is currently only bare ground covered by a rudimentary shell of a roof on metal struts.
El Centro plans to move its community health workers and nursing director into the office wings immediately. Once the clinic wing is built — hopefully within a year — El Centro’s medical services, such as primary health care, would move there, Pease said.
The services El Centro offers in its Bond Street clinic will remain where they are, Pease said. Building the wing of medical clinics at the Health Commons will cost about $900,000 and take about six months, starting when the County writes that additional work into Blue Sky’s contract, Morfin said. Rather than bid out the estimated construction of that wing, the County is negotiating to add it onto Blue Sky Builders’ contract as yet another change order, Morfin said.
That change order is ready for approval once the state Department of Finance Administration signs off on the County’s fiscal year 2009-10 budget, and construction would start within weeks after that, Morfin said. Funding for that wing would come from a $2 million general obligation bond voters approved in 2008.
Morfin has justified the change order by arguing it will be cheaper for Blue Sky to finish the project rather than ask another contractor to set up its equipment at the site. County Commission Chairman Elias Coriz acknowledged that argument, but said he would likely support bidding out the medical clinic wing.
“If it’s going to be more costly by putting it out to bid, then we should just follow through,” he said. “But a change order gives the contractor more leverage, and I don’t think that’s fair. The way the economy is right now, it’s the ideal time for good, healthy competition and getting the County a better deal.”
SERVICES AVAILIABLE
The Rio Arriba County Health and Human Services Department, the state Health Department and El Centro Family Health plan to offer the following services at the Health Commons building on Industrial Park Road. The County is currently moving in and plans to begin offering services there later this month. The other two agencies have not scheduled a move-in date yet.
Rio Arriba County Health and Human Services:
• Behavioral health assessments and referrals
• Intensive case management
• Case management for high-risk, pregnant women
State Health Department:
• Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) — provides food to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care for women, infants and children up to age 5
• Children’s Medical Services — screenings for genetic and metabolic disorders
• Family First — parenting education and assistance programs
• Sexually transmitted disease prevention and treatment
• Health promotion services
El Centro Family Health:
• Starting this year — services provided by community health workers, including classes and some counseling and case management.
• After the Health Commons’ clinic wing is built — primary health care, counselling, case management, Medicaid enrollment, medication assistance, smoking cessation and diabetes and weight management care.