The issues that delayed the opening of the new William Beaumont Medical Center in 2020 have been resolved and the gigantic $ 1.4 billion Fort Bliss complex is set to finally open on July 11, the commanding officer said on Monday. hospital.
Hundreds of fire and life safety issues identified by consultants earlier this year have been corrected or interim measures taken to ensure the safety of patients and staff, Army Col. Michael said. Oshiki during and after a press conference on Monday.
All regulatory and safety standards were met to allow openness, Oshiki said.
More than 500 personal safety breaches have been identified in the hospital building of seven floors and 135 beds, shows the report of a consultant given to officials at Beaumont in February. In addition, a significant number of life safety deficiencies were discovered in other buildings in the six-building complex, said Brad Hartell, project construction manager for the Army Corps of Engineers, who oversaw the construction of Beaumont carried out by two major national contactors. He didn’t have the exact number.
Oshiki, dressed in an army green fatigues, stood inside a large, windowed rotunda inside the main entrance to the complex during the hospital’s second unveiling to the media of El Paso.
The first unveiling took place in February 2020 after more than six years of construction the complex was officially completed, and the hospital complex handed over to officials in Beaumont. The complex was due to open in September 2020, but delayed to March, and now, to July 11.
The unveiling took place this time in a medical complex which now has equipment, furniture and some people who are already working.
The facility had an initial target opening date of April 2017. But years of construction problems and millions of dollars in cost overruns have delayed the project. It cost $ 629 million over the original contract awards.
“I can’t change what has happened in the last two years since I’ve been here. And I can’t change what happened before that,” Oshiki said after his press conference. “I think there have been a lot of good lessons learned. But the important thing is that we are reaching that mark now where we are opening the doors and we are going to be able to use this phenomenal medical center.”
Hartell, of the Army Corps, said years of construction and problems are not unusual for “a mega project like this.” The whole project took 10 years from conception to completion, he said.
The new hospital has “a lot of state-of-the-art equipment”
Oshiki and other military officials consider the new Beaumont to be the “most technologically advanced medical center in the US Department of Defense.”
With six buildings spanning 1.1 million square feet, or the equivalent of 17 football fields, it is also one of the largest U.S. military medical complexes in the world, officials said. army. It is located on 270 acres of Fort Bliss land at Spur 601 and Loop 375 in East El Paso.
Some of the technology was presented to members of the media on a tour. This included two cardiac catheterization laboratories allowing for safer and faster cardiac procedures, in a minimally evasive manner, said Major Charles Lin, interventional cardiologist and chief of cardiology at the hospital. He worked at old Beaumont for 10 months.
“It’s exciting to move to a new hospital. There is a lot of state-of-the-art equipment here,†he said in one of the new hybrid cath labs.
Beaumont officials did not immediately have the cost of the resort’s equipment and furnishings, which is on top of its $ 1.4 billion construction cost.
Army Maj. Marisol Diaz, chief of maternal services at Beaumont, said the starts and stops with the hospital’s opening dates presented many challenges. She has worked at Beaumont for two years.
“Now is the time to pick up the patients. We can provide safe patient care,” she said during a tour of the spacious new maternity and baby floor at Beaumont.
The hospital is scheduled to open on Sunday July 11, when a contractor specializing in hospital removals will help move patients from old Beaumont. The new, much larger emergency department will open at 7 a.m. that day.
The medical clinics at the old hospital will move to two clinical buildings in the new complex from July 12 to 23, Oshiki said.
The hospital will be inaugurated on Thursday
Dignitaries, including descendants of Dr William Beaumont, will attend the inauguration of the new complex in a ceremony Thursday morning. They will also mark 100 years since the opening of the first Fort Bliss hospital named after Beaumont, Oshiki said.
What will happen to old Beaumont is not yet known, Oshiki said. The nearly 50-year-old hospital is located on the Fort Bliss grounds at 5005 N. Piedras St., in north-central El Paso.
However, plans are underway to relocate the veterans clinic adjacent to the old hospital to 22 acres at the new Beaumont site, said Michael Amaral, director of the El Paso VA health system. The design for a 500,000 square foot building is nearing completion, but Congress has not allocated money for the project, he said.
His goal, he said, is to commission a new clinic building by 2025.
Vic Kolenc can be reached at 546-6421; [email protected]; @vickolenc on Twitter.
