$1.3B investment in health care

$1.3B investment in health care
East Bay Business Times - by Michael Ammann

Expansion of health care facilities in Fairfield, Vacaville and Vallejo demonstrates the faith this sector of the business world has in Solano County.

Kaiser Permanente, NorthBay Healthcare, Sutter Health, Touro University and the county of Solano are embarking on, or completing, major expansion projects totaling more than $1.3 billion.

These expansions will provide better medical choices for the residents of Solano County, and they create short-term construction jobs and bring well-paying, long-term health care job opportunities for hundreds of local residents.

Kaiser will open its new hospital in Vacaville in spring 2009. The four-story, 340,000-square-foot facility will have a 150-bed capacity - all private rooms. Included will be Vacaville's first maternity unit.

Across town, NorthBay Healthcare has opened its new surgery center on the VacaValley Hospital campus, taking some of the pressure of a growing patient load off the system's two hospitals.

With the help of Genentech Inc., which donated $500,000, a new emergency department is operating in the Vacaville hospital, complementing its sister hospital's ER in Fairfield.

Kaiser Permanente will have two hospitals serving Solano County when the Vacaville facility opens next year. Kaiser's Vallejo hospital has served the area for many years, and a $350 million expansion and remodeling project will be completed in 2009.
The expansion provides 188 new beds, expanded emergency, surgery and radiology services and a modern "green" environment that captures the natural beauty of the North Bay. Kaiser says its Solano County hospitals represent a strong personal and financial commitment to making the facilities "green," and that both are "on a par with the greenest medical facilities in the nation."

Sutter Hospitals and medical clinics have completed $120 million in new health care facilities, including an 11-acre, $75 million Fairfield Medical Campus completed earlier this year which provided enhanced technology, including a new nuclear imaging system, the first non-hospital nuclear imaging system center in the county.

Sutter also is working to open a new primary care facility in Vallejo. The new clinic, operated by La Clinica, would provide centralized health services for low-income residents, and would cut down on the number of uninsured patients that Sutter now serves in the Vallejo area.

In Vallejo, Touro University is moving closer to opening its $330 million cancer treatment center as project one of the future "University Village," covering 191 acres on Mare Island.

Solano County government officials recently broke ground on $97 million improvements on health and social services campuses in Vallejo and Fairfield. A third facility, in Vacaville, is in the design phase.

Both county facilities will be more customer-oriented. In Vallejo, the expanded campus will allow for an annual patient visit expansion of 18 percent to 16,500 visits yearly. Fairfield's campus will have 195,000 square feet of space, with adjacent buildings serving as headquarters for the county's social programs.

NorthBay's new "healthy" Administrative Center was occupied in May and includes a training and conference center, along with administrative offices, located on Business Center Drive in Green Valley. The two-story 69,000-square-foot facility provides NorthBay with a third health care campus in Solano County.

There are plenty more health care projects on the drawing board, too. NorthBay is far along on establishing its Heart and Vascular Center for Solano County. When the program begins next year, NorthBay Medical Center in Fairfield will perform open-heart surgeries and new cutting-edge vascular procedures. Currently, the nearest heart centers are at Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa and John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek.

All of these expansions and improvements demonstrate the health care industry's realization that Solano County is a growing, vibrant area. The $1.3 billion commitment, coupled with the expansion of the biotech industry, make this Northern California county a showcase for these two economic sectors.

Michael Ammann is president of the Solano Economic Development Corp. Reach him at mike@solanoedc.org.