PORT ANGELES — Olympic Medical Center is finalizing a floor plan for a new medical office building in Port Angeles.
The two-story, 37,000-square-foot structure will replace several old office buildings on the south side of Caroline Street near the hospital.
“We want to start construction in the summer,” Chief Executive Officer Eric Lewis told OMC’s governing board Wednesday.
“We budgeted $8 million for this next year. It’s a total of about a $15 million project. So this is big.”
OMC officials have been planning to build a centralized medical office building for the main campus since the late 1990s.
“We didn’t have any land back then, so it was a big process,” Lewis said.
Sequim campus expansion will come later this decade, with no construction currently planned.
Looking ahead
The Port Angeles medical office building is being designed to allow for more expansion in the future.
“We’re trying to think 20 years and 30 years down the road,” Lewis said.
“This is will meet our needs for the foreseeable future, but we want to be able to more than double the size of the building as the community grows or as we need more space.”
OMC employees have helped adjust the site plan to optimize the flow of patients, providers, staff, equipment, medications and other materials through the building, Lewis said.
A schematic design will be finalized next month.
Early next year, hospital officials will ask the City Council to consider an infill overlay that would combine some 15 OMC-owned parcels into one large parcel in a newly created medical zone.
Medical hub
“The city is really encouraging this because this is really the medical hub of Port Angeles and Clallam County,” Lewis said.
The overlay would eliminate the alley between Caroline and Georgiana streets from Race to Washington streets.
“We want to get rid of that alley because the building is actually going to be over the alley,” Lewis said.
“I think it’s critical that we get rid of that alley if we’re going to effectively use the space we own.”
The reconfiguration will provide room for some 250 parking spaces between the hospital and the medical office building. The modern office building is slated to be finished in May 2016.
OMC secured a $20 million loan last December to pay for the medical office building and other capital improvements.
Emergency room
In other construction news, Lewis reported that the ongoing expansion of the hospital emergency room is a “few weeks” behind schedule but should still be done by spring.
The busy ER is being expanded from 14 beds to 20, with new secure rooms for mental health and drug- and alcohol-addicted patients.
“The foundation is now done,” Lewis said.
“We had some challenges with the demolition of the canopy, which slowed the project down. So we are behind schedule, but we are working to still get it done by March.”
The steel framing for the new ER will be installed in the coming weeks, Lewis said.
2015 budget
Meanwhile, OMC commissioners received no public testimony Wednesday in a hearing on the proposed 2015 budget.
Chief Financial Officer Julie Rukstad said OMC projects $152.5 million in operating revenue, $150 million in operating expenses and a 2 percent net margin in 2015.
A 2 percent margin is one of the 26 goals in OMC’s three-year strategic plan, which is available at www.olympicmedical.org.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
