ST. LOUIS - Leading hospital design-build firm HBE Corp. is on target to start construction next July on the new Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital in Willits, CA.  Drawings for the project are currently in their second round of review with the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) and awaiting receipt of the final building permit.

"We've made design choices which should help expedite and streamline the OSHPD review," stated hospital project manager Amy Ford.  "HBE has extensive experience building hospitals in California and has a complete understanding of OSHPD requirements."  OSHPD is required by the state to review all new hospital plans and designs to ensure that they meet all special building code requirements.  The department also oversees all aspects of hospital construction.

Adventist Health agreed to spend up to $61.2 million on a new hospital and hired St. Louis-based HBE Corp. to provide the architecture, engineering services, construction and site work on the project.  HBE consistently provides significant construction savings as a result of its unique design-build model, which provides hospital owners an alternative design solution and guaranteed lump sum contract for their current project.  HBE develops the side-by-side comparative analysis at no cost to the hospital.  The hospital owner pays nothing and has no obligation for HBE's comparative design and fixed cost unless and until the alternative proposal is approved.

HBE's design for the 75,000 square-foot, two-story hospital includes 25 private patient rooms, an emergency room with eight exam/treatment rooms, four intensive care beds, laboratory, general stores, helipad, 21-bed medical/surgical unit, an endoscopy room, chapel, main entrance canopy, surgical suite with four operating rooms, physical therapy room, pharmacy, kitchen, dining area, administration offices and 10 pre- and post-operation beds.

ABOUT FRANK R. HOWARD MEMORIAL HOSPITAL:
Charles S. Howard, owner of famed racehorse Seabiscuit, was the first Grand Marshall of the Frontier Days Parade, an annual fundraising event started in 1925 to raise money for a Willits Community Hospital.  Two months before the second Frontier Days was to be held, Howard's 15-year-old son Frank R. Howard was severly injured in an automobile accident.  The doctor was summoned, but because of the seriousness of the boy's injuries, the doctor was unable to save him because there wasn't a "real hospital" nearby or emergency department.  The tragedy moved Howard to donate $30,000 for the construction of the Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital.  A groundbreaking was held in 1927, with the first patient admitted in 1928.

ABOUT HBE: 

HBE Corporation is the nation’s leading designer and builder of hospitals, including replacement hospitals and hospital renovations and additions.  The company has designed and built more than 1,100 hospitals in 49 states, and is ranked as the number one hospital design-build firm in the United States.  Headquartered in St. Louis, HBE is one of the largest privately held companies in the Midwest with a staff of 400 people including architects, engineers and construction professionals. 

Click here for a computer generated tour of the new facility's design.  The project is expected to be completed in March 2014.