By Bruce Barton
 Hospital dignitaries approach the site of El Camino Hospital’s new building entrance. |
After a year’s delay due to a lawsuit that tied up voter-approved bond-measure funds, El Camino Hospital in Mountain View celebrated its second groundbreaking in 48 years Thursday, this time for a new facility that will incorporate the latest medical technologies while fulfilling the state’s seismic requirements.
“I have one thing to say first - yes!” said Dr. Edward Bough, hospital district board president, raising both arms in triumph to applause from hospital supporters.
The ceremony, which included founding hospital board member Billy Russell, marked the start of actual construction on the hospital’s new main building. The 460,000-square-foot facility, slated for completion in July 2009, will include 300 beds on five levels, 16 operating rooms and expanded emergency rooms.
Partially funded by a $148 million bond measure voters passed in 2003, the new construction results from a state mandate requiring all hospitals to adopt stricter seismic standards after the 1994 Northridge quake left Southern California hospitals treating the wounded in their parking lots.
Citing the theme, “renewal,” Bough encouraged today’s hospital leaders to follow in the optimism of the founders. “We should be optimistic that El Camino Hospital will successfully renew itself,” he said.
Bough thanked Russell and members of the founding district board for their success. “They grew a world-class hospital in an apricot orchard,” he said.
To get to Thursday’s milestone event, hospital officials had to overcome a lawsuit filed by Saratoga attorney Aaron Katz challenging the validity of the 2003 bond measure. Katz asserted he, as a property owner in the hospital district, should have been allowed to vote. Hospital officials settled with Katz for $200,000.
Ken King, vice president of facilities, said the lawsuit delayed the hospital groundbreaking by a year, but figuring in the progress made in project planning, he estimated the completion date would be delayed by only six months. Still, he etimated the Katz suit cost the hospital district an average of $2 million a month.
The next step is to demolish the old Oak Pavilion building, located next to the original main hospital building, to make room for the new main facility. The original 425-bed hospital tower will remain in operation until mid-June 2009, after which it will be demolished. Although hospital officials, factoring the lawsuit delays and rising construction costs, budgeted $480 million for the project, King remains confident the project can be completed for the earlier estimate of $450 million.
In addition to the main building, new construction has included a new Oak Pavilion, a new 850-space parking structure and medical office building, set to open in August.
“This has been five years of planning effort,” King said. “Everything’s been pretty effective.” To offer perspective on the importance of planning, King noted, “This is a 10-step process. Step 9 is the construction. Step 10 is moving in.”
Keeping in mind the skyrocketing costs of steel, King said hospital officials bought their steel supply last August. Costs have since risen another 20 percent, he said.
“(King) and his team saved the community some serious money by pulling the trigger on the steel purchase,” said Jon Friedenberg, president of the El Camino Hospital Foundation.
The state originally required seismic updates completed by next year. However, King said El Camino is “ahead of the curve” compared to other hospitals and has filed for an extension for 2009. The extension, he said, is virtually assured approval considering the hospital’s inroads on its construction.
El Camino Hospital initially broke ground in 1958. The hospital opened to its first patients in 1961. The new construction stems from a master plan for replacing the oldest buildings on campus, which the district board approved in November 2002.
