The pool in the Wellness Center.

After years of planning, major construction projects will get under way this month on the hospital campuses in both Vacaville and Fairfield, the beginning of what could be a decade-long modernization and expansion effort.

“It’s an exciting and challenging time ahead,” says Gary Passama, NorthBay Healthcare’s president and CEO. “A lot will be happening in and around our hospitals. And what could be nearly $200 million in improvements has to occur in concert with us continuing to operate 24/7 every day.”

First to commence, and first to be completed, is a new 110,000-square-foot building in Vaca-ville that will house a state-of-the-art NorthBay Cancer Center. The three-story medical office building will also be home to an outpatient diagnostic imaging center, endocrinology and diabetes treatment services, orthopedics and the county’s first medical fitness center.

A new welcome pavilion, above, is the first addition planned for NorthBay Medical Center.

The larger and longer project on the Fairfield hospital campus begins with a new welcome pavilion for patients and visitors, which will pave the way for a new three-story wing that will house leading-edge surgery suites, diagnostic imaging services, and a spacious cafeteria and kitchen facility. One floor will accommodate 22 patient rooms with cutting-edge technology.

The new wing replaces some older sections of the 50-year-old Fairfield hospital. The new welcome pavilion and lobby means the Emergency Department will be able to expand beyond its current footprint. NorthBay Trauma Center and the ER treat more than 40,000 patients a year. The long-range facilities plan calls for all of the older wings to be replaced.

The Vacaville project, dubbed the NorthBay Wellness Center, will be complete in mid-2016. However, the initial two stages of the Fairfield project will take more than three years to complete. Further modernization projects are still in the planning stages.

In the meantime, all services will continue without disruption. “We expect to continue to grow and care for more patients in 2015,” explains Deborah Sugiyama, President of NorthBay Healthcare Group. “Our programs, from heart and vascular to neurosurgery to trauma, will see more patients this year than last. We will accommodate the growth and continue top-quality care during the modernization and expansion work.”