Sunrise Hospital undergoes $17 million expansion

The first modern private hospital in Las Vegas is adding on.

Kitchell Contractors is performing a $17 million, 72,000 square-foot addition at Sunrise Hospital. The new three-story structure will serve as the adult and pediatric emergency center. Last year, Sunrise's emergency room had more than 73,000 patients.

"It about triples our capacity for ER patients," Sunrise spokesperson Ann Lynch said. "I hope this will ease the crunch on our emergency divert."

Lynch said that area hospitals are facing emergency patient overloads due to new residents without regular doctors and the high number of tourists.

Sunrise Hospital originally was built by developer Irwin Molasky, and opened its doors in December 1958 with 58 rooms. Today, the Healthcare Company-owned facility has 688 rooms and is the largest private hospital west of Chicago.

Despite its size, the hospital has undergone numerous updates to keep pace with Las Vegas' tremendous growth. Since 1980, in fact, Kitchell has performed more than I million squarefeet of additions and expansions at Sunrise.

"We've been able to accommodate to growth as it comes," Lynch said.

The newest addition creates a 42,000 square-foot emergency area with 24-adult beds and 24 pediatric beds on the first floor. It also will contain $6 million in new equipment, including a CAT scan machine and two x-ray suites.

The second floor contains 37,000 square feet of shell space to be converted into 50 intensive care unit beds at a later date. The third floor serves primarily as storage for the mechanical utilities.

Lynch said the expansion gives the hospital a much-needed separation between critical trauma and pediatric patients. Furthermore, it adds some essential infrastructure with a heliport pad on the roof and a dedicated elevator. The structure uses a steel frame, steel decking building method. As part of the contract work, Kitchell also is building a five-acre, 500-space parking area at the northeast corner of Maryland Parkway and Desert Inn Road. The surface level parking features a canopied pedestrian walkway to the new facility.

The construction, however, has posed some unique challenges.

"This was a confined job site with little room for storage," said project manager Fred Dilley. "As a result, we had to carefully coordinate delivery of sup plies and equipment."

In addition, the hospital stayed opened during construction. With 3,500

employees and 540 patients every day, it has been no small challenge. Consequently, Kitchell built falsework to protect the job site from curious onlookers and route everyone in the right direction.

Demolition work covering 5,000 square feet was performed at night to tie the addition into the existing hospital.

"Often times with buildings this old, you never know what you're going to get," said construction manager John Bonnell. "Luckily, the people at Sunrise kept thorough track of the underground utilities and preserved their mechanical and electrical plans."

The newest addition is scheduled for completion byAugust2000. The project will have seen 115 people on-site during the height of construction. Once finished, Kitchell will begin a $6.3 million, 28,000 square-foot renovation of the old emergency room, w ic a not been updated since the 1960's. The renovation is slated to be completed' by June 2001.