PORT ANGELES — Olympic Medical Center will start seeking a contractor to build a $7.9 million addition to the hospital at 939 Caroline St., hospital commissioners decided Wednesday.
The addition, which will cost $11.1 million when interior improvements are finished, will house administrative offices, magnetic resonance imaging, dietary services and cardiac services on its first floor.
Records will be stored in the basement, which also will include a large, empty shell for future expansion.
Designed by Mahlum Architects of Seattle, the 32,322-square-foot addition will be built in two phases over 15 months. Cafeteria services will continue in their current location until the addition is complete.
Seeking a contractor
Attracting a contractor might prove more difficult than building the addition, the architect said.
General contractors abound in the region, but few of them are tackling large projects. Port Angeles’ location outside the Puget Sound metropolis complicates the problem.
The addition should improve patient and staff traffic, according to Mahlum, and eventually make it easier to deliver meals to patients’ rooms.
It will come at a cost of 26 spaces in the hospital’s east parking lot, however.
In other actions Wednesday, hospital commissioners approved leasing space for three years at 622 E. Front St. to house patient-billing operations. The lease of $3,260 per month translates to $1 per square foot per month.
The hospital also will spend $45,000 to rewire telephones, computers and fiber optics system. The move is expected to be completed in three to four weeks.
The hospital collections department and cashier will remain in the Medical Center.
Commissioners also agreed to sell its former oncology radiation center at 615 N. Fifth St., Sequim, for office space.
