Sacred Heart Medical Center & Childrens Hospital and Holy Family Hospital are expected to begin this month developing a 10-year master plan for future projects at the two big Spokane hospitals.


The hospitals, which are operated by Renton, Wash.-based nonprofit Providence Health & Services, have expanded significantly in recent years, pumping roughly $200 million into the construction industry here. Sacred Heart, which has 623 licensed beds, employs 3,055 full-time equivalent workers at its sprawling lower South Hill campus, while Holy Family, with 272 beds, employs 914 FTEs at its North Side complex.


In the master plan, officials at the two hospitals and Providence will try to identify future community health needs and determine what additional facilities or capabilities will be required to meet those needs, says Mike Wilson, president of Sacred Heart.


It likely will take the rest of the year to complete the master plan, Wilson says, adding that the previous 10-year plan was implemented in 1996.


Wilson and Tom Corley, president of Holy Family, both say the recent high level of patient visits (see story, this page) accentuates the need to study future expansion.


Both also say they believe their respective hospitals have adequate land available for growth.


Wilson says Sacred Heart for years has acquired additional property whenever possible around its complex, and currently owns more than 80 acres that cover about 10 square blocks on the lower South Hill near downtown.


At Holy Family, located just east of Franklin Park Mall, Weve acquired an additional one and a half blocks east of the campus, at about Lidgerwood Street and Central Avenue, and can build there once homes on the property are torn down, Corley says. We still have room for growth on campus, and can always go up vertically.


Liz DeRuyter, director of marketing and public relations at Holy Family, says the Holy Family campus is spread over 18 acres, not including the adjacent one and half blocks it bought for future expansion.


Wilson says that while land is available for expansion, a challenge in planning future projects is maintaining a general pattern where acute-care operations are at the core of the campus, and other operations are located around that core depending on their supportive role in relation to acute care. Key support services such as radiology, respiratory, pharmacy, and food and nutrition should remain adjacent to that core, while less-critical operations, such as physician offices and parking lots, can be placed farther from the core, he says.


Among the issues Sacred Heart will address in the master plan will be future bed needs, projected outpatient volume, anticipated growth of the hospitals cardiac program in relation to an aging population, and impacts any expected growth will have on clinical services, Wilson says.


Corley says Holy Familys piece of the 10-year plan will be designed around a larger, older population. He says Holy Family has a strong cancer-care program, yet will do additional studies to determine if more, and, if so, what types of cancer services will be needed there in the future.


Cancer comes in many varieties and types, and as a disease entity is apt to affect a growing population, says Corley. It would be a tremendous disservice to our patients if we didnt plan well into the future.


Other areas for possible expansion at Holy Family include obstetrics and the intensive-care unit, where were very short on critical-care beds, he says.


SHMCs most recent expansion push began in 2001 and lasted about four years, Wilson says. That $131 million project added about 314,000 square feet of space to the complex and also included remodeling other space. About 252,000 square feet of the new space was included in an eight-story west tower, which includes the Sacred Heart Womens Health Center and an expansion of the hospitals surgery center. Another 52,000 square feet of space, on two additional floors, was added to the hospitals east wing, and provided space for the Sacred Heart Childrens Hospital, Wilson says.


Sacred Heart now has 2.1 million square feet of floor space on its campus, not including parking garages.


At Holy Family, work has started on a four-story medical office building as part of a $36 million expansion and renovation project. Holy Family will own and occupy the lower floor in that building, while Denver-based NexCore Group LP will own and manage the upper three floors. Earlier this decade, Holy Family spent $29 million to build a 19,000-square-foot emergency center, quadruple the hospitals imaging center, and make major changes to the hospitals main entrance.


Holy Familys DeRuyter says the hospital will have a total of about 375,000 square feet of usable floor space in its buildings when the new medical office structure is completed. In addition, the 59,000 square feet of floor space in the top three floors owned by NexCore will be leased to physicians, she says.


Wilson says the master plan will include strategies on how future expansions and added services will be funded.


Historically, the primary source for new construction comes through earnings from medical services the hospital generates as a nonprofit, he says. At times, the hospital also has offered bonds to pay for construction, says Wilson.


Wilson says a nucleus of people from Sacred Heart, Holy Family, and Providence will spearhead the master-planning effort, but a variety of others also will provide input throughout the process.


Contact Rocky Wilson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at rockyw@spokanejournal.com.