Leone & Keeble Inc., of Spokane, is the apparent low bidder on a contract to expand and remodel Whitman Hospital & Medical Center, in Colfax, Wash.


Still, Jon Davis, administrator of Whitman Hospital, says Leone & Keebles bid of $15.3 million is $1.8 million higher than the amount budgeted for the project, which could delay the projects anticipated start date as hospital officials decide how to proceed.


The project is to include two phasesthe construction of a two-story, 31,000-square-foot addition on the east side of the oldest, 27,000-square-foot part of the hospital, which was built in 1968, and the remodel of about half of the old hospital. Davis says construction of the addition will take about a year to complete once the project gets under way, and the remodeling work will take another eight months.


In 2003, Whitman Hospital attached a 30,000-square-foot surgery center to the north end of the original hospital, says Davis.


One big benefit for us is that the new expansion will enlarge our emergency department threefold, Davis says. He says another benefit will be the consolidation of the hospitals radiology department into one location. Currently, the radiology department is scattered between three sites, he says.


Davis says that the main floor of the addition will house the radiology department, the expanded emergency-services department, the hospitals respiratory-therapy department, and a general laboratory.


The second floor will be dedicated to acute care and will include delivery and recovery rooms for mothers and their babies, and maintenance and dietary services will be located in the basement level, he says.


Davis says remodeling work in the current hospital building will include a new lobby and gift shop, added administrative office space, an expanded pharmacy, and more space for the hospitals medical-records department.


The project was designed by NAC/Architecture, of Spokane.


Whitman Hospital is a 25-bed critical-access hospital.


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