SJHS breaks ground on $100 million CCB designed by Francis Cauffman

St. Joseph's Healthcare System (SJHS) broke ground for a new, $100-million, 230,000 s/f Critical Care Building (CCB), launching the expansion and renovation of St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center. The master plan and the CCB, both designed by architecture firm Francis Cauffman, will upgrade the hospital's services and focus on revitalizing the city's economic health. The CCB increases the 600-bed hospital's efficiency and public presence in the region. When it is completed in 2012, the ground floor will house an expanded emergency room, designed to accommodate 125,000 visits annually, with separate entrances for the pediatric and adult emergency departments and a 50,000 s/f addition to the level two regional trauma center. The upper level will have 12 operating rooms and two levels of cardiac, surgical, and critical and intensive care units. The CCB replaces three buildings and a parking garage on the existing campus. Overall, the hospital expansion project adds approximately 655,000 s/f of new and renovated space; in addition to the CCB, the master plan relocates the hospital's existing entrance, adds a new lobby, and renovates the interior spaces of the hospital. Work has already started on the new lobby and renovation for a new conference center, boardroom, and physician lounge. "The groundbreaking for the Critical Care Building at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center marks a major step forward in St. Joseph's Healthcare System's expansion and renovation project," said William McDonald, CEO of SJHS. "The construction of the new Critical Care Building is one element of a multi-phase facilities plan that will enable physicians and staff to provide expanded high quality care in state-of-the-art facilities as St. Joseph's continues to respond to the health care needs of the region." "With the groundbreaking for the Critical Care Building, St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center brings state-of-the-art facilities to the 142-year-old hospital, which is a lynchpin of the local community," said James Crispino, president of Francis Cauffman. "At a time when both healthcare and the economy are at the center of the national conversation, we are proud to be helping the hospital and city to thrive in the future." Francis Cauffman's master plan supports SJHS's medical and teaching activities, and it also helps the city to create safer streets, opportunities for private development, and affordable housing in a distressed economic area. The master plan includes a range of new buildings adjacent to the hospital campus: a public parking garage, a hotel, an office building, a transit station, affordable housing, and a high-rise apartment building for local residents and medical students. The city has simultaneously embarked on streetscape improvements around the campus that will include a new public park and a community center; SJHS has also contracted with a private developer to build an adjacent, city-operated parking structure.