NorthBay Unveils Designs for Fairfield, Vacaville Hospital Campuses

Using the stage of its grand opening for the Green Valley Health Plaza, NorthBay Healthcare in March outlined major construction projects on its two hospital campuses to keep pace with the community’s medical needs.

Explaining that nearly $200 million will be invested in the local economy before the end of the decade, President and CEO Gary Passama said, “The landscape of health care, as everyone understands by now, is changing. And we are changing with it.”

Grand opening festivities for the 37,000-square-foot medical office building in Green Valley included self-guided tours of the Center for Primary Care, NorthBay Hospice & Bereavement, Health at Home and a gastroenterology specialty practice. “This is pretty special for us since it represents the continual growth of the only locally owned, locally governed healthcare system in Solano County that is open to all,” Passama said.

Of the upcoming projects, the largest is the modernization and replacement of older sections of NorthBay Medical Center in Fairfield, which will take three to five years to complete. Up to $140 million will be spent to build a new three-story wing and a new lobby entrance.

Construction in Vacaville begins first with the NorthBay VacaValley Hospital campus adding a new, state-of-the-art medical fitness center—a first for Solano County—and becoming home for the NorthBay Cancer Center, currently located in Fairfield.

VACAVILLE

VacaValley Hospital Campus

Changes to the hospital campus on Nut Tree Road will be the most dramatic. “Our vision for Vacaville includes a health village with approximately half of the campus devoted to services outside of the hospital,” said Passama. “Construction will begin with a groundbreaking as soon as October.”

In addition to the NorthBay Cancer Center, the 105,000-square-foot complex will include a new diagnostic imaging center. Other features will complement NorthBay Healthcare’s expansion into Functional Medicine, which combines natural and conventional approaches to healing, including osteopathic manipulation, nutritional medicine and biofeedback.

The Cancer Center will share the facility with something completely new and unique to Solano County: a medical fitness center. While it will have many of the features of a health club—exercise equipment, indoor running track, pools and spas—it will have specialized therapy equipment for patients. The staff will be highly trained and work collaboratively with physicians and specialists.

“By the end of 2015, or early in 2016, the Cancer Center and medical fitness center could be in operation. It represents an investment of $30 million to $40 million in Vacaville and could create scores of new jobs,” said Passama.

FAIRFIELD

NorthBay Medical Center

While the long-range blueprint for the Fairfield hospital campus spans the next 10 to 15 years, groundbreaking for the first phase could come late in 2015 when work gets under way on a new three-story wing.

The $140 million, 77,000-square-foot addition will:

• Expand the Emergency Department from 19 to 32 treatment bays;
• Create room for six new surgical suites and two cardiac catheter-ization labs;
• Relocate and modernize the cafeteria and the hospital kitchen;
• Expand and modernize the diagnostic imaging department; and
• Create the space to move 22 patient beds from the oldest portion
  of the hospital.

In addition, the first phase includes a new lobby and public café. The existing lobby will become part of the expanded Emergency Department.

“Know that this is only the first phase,” noted Passama. “When we eventually finish all construction, modernization and replacement of the older sections, it could exceed $400 million during the next decade or longer.”

Changes will take into consideration the surrounding neighborhood. Generous buffers will be created to separate hospital buildings from residences to the north. “We will meet all those challenges because
we are committed to remaining in the heart of the city, knowing we provide an economic benefit to the area.”

GREEN VALLEY

Health Plaza

A joint project with NexCORE Group, the health plaza is the second building to open on NorthBay’s Green Valley Business Center Drive property. It is adjacent to the administration and conference center, which opened six years ago.

Nine primary care physicians and staff take up most of the second floor of the new building, which features energy-efficient construction and design, plus plenty of natural light. DPR Construction was the general contractor. The building includes 6,400-square-feet of “shelled space” that will accommodate additional medical services as needed.

It was the second move in two years for Bereavement, which was previously located on Oliver Road in Fairfield. The new facility has a comfortable, spacious meeting room that can accommodate workshops, counseling and bereavement support groups.