Construction work that has congested Tucson Medical Center for the better part of three years got a little lighter this week.
The hospital opened a new and much-needed 600-space parking garage on the west campus Thursday, and conducted tours of its partially completed 78-foot tower.
Next up: finishing the four-story tower, which will be for surgery and orthopaedic patients. The TMC Orthopaedic and Surgical Tower is expected to open in April 2013.
The hospital also plans to construct a reconfigured entrance on Beverly Avenue off of East Grant Road, spokeswoman Julia Strange said.
All told, construction projects that began at the hospital in November 2009 will total $134 million, hospital officials confirmed. It's TMC's largest construction project in 16 years.
The improvements are coming at a time when hospitals statewide are struggling with state budget slashing that has increased the number of indigent Arizonans without health insurance. Also, government reimbursements are not keeping pace with the cost of providing health care.
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But TMC officials say they are in a stable financial position and that the construction project has been completed in phases through a blend of fundraising, savings and borrowing.
The surgical tower is the biggest part of the face-lift. It will have operating rooms dedicated solely to orthopaedic procedures with 40 inpatient rooms for orthopaedic patients one floor up, said Dr. Scott Slagis. Slagis is medical director of the TMC Orthopaedic Center and a physician with Tucson Orthopaedic Institute, which does about 7,000 orthopaedic surgeries at TMC annually.
"This is a huge advantage to the patients as it is all concentrated in one place. It is truly unique," Slagis said, noting the plans allow for an expansion of 10 additional patient rooms.
The first floor of the 200,000-square-foot tower will be the new home of the Tucson Orthopaedic Institute's east-side office. The institute's existing building at 2424 N. Wyatt Drive, where it has been since 1995, will be leased out to other physicians, Strange said.
The second floor will have 14 operating rooms for general surgery, with 10 orthopaedic operating rooms on the third floor and orthopaedic inpatient rooms on the fourth.
In addition to the tower, parking garage and updated entrance, the hospital also completed an expansion and redevelopment of its children's wing, put in new trails and roadways on the east side of the hospital's campus and renovated the postpartum units.
Kansas-based J.E. Dunn Construction Group's Phoenix division is the contractor in partnership with Tucson's Barker Morrissey Contracting, and Michigan-based Hobbs + Black's architects are working locally with DLR Group.
TMC says it has committed more than $50 million in subcontracts so far, with 100 percent of the work going to Arizona subcontractors. Nearly 80 percent of the work was awarded to Tucson subcontractors.
Approximately 75 percent of the 150 construction workers on site are local residents, hospital officials say.
Did you know?
Tucson Medical Center is the largest single-story hospital in the United States. But when its new four-story tower is complete in 2013, the hospital will lose that status.
Contact reporter Stephanie Innes at sinnes@azstarnet.com or 573-4134.