MCCARTHY 9/13/07 4:29 PM Page 42
MCCARTHY – PANORAMA CITY MEDICAL CENTER
until 2013, and must be in substantial to
full compliance by 2030.
However, during the approval process,
documents are often sent back and forth
between OSHPD inspectors and the
designers and builders for revisions. This
can delay schedules and result in cost
overruns.
“So much of the code is interpretive
and that results in additional costs and
delays, so by the time things are caught,
you have to go back and do more work,”
Dumke says.
Several requests for extensions beyond
the 2013 deadline have already been
made and approved by OSHPD.
Of the 415 requests for extensions to
the seismic safety deadlines, 400 were
approved, according to the organization.
A major surge in construction is
expected as hospitals hurry to meet the
upcoming deadlines. Hospital construc-
tion applications approved by OSHPD
have increased 16 percent from 2004 to
2006. To assist owners, contractors and
designers in meeting the deadlines,
OSHPD is increasing its efforts to
42 ■ CONSTRUCTION TODAY ■ OCTOBER 2007
streamline the approval process, says
Patrick Sullivan, OSHPD’s assistant direc-
tor of legislative and public affairs.
“As we near the 2013 deadline, OSHPD
has been ramping up its staffing levels
and working to streamline the plan
review process to meet the increased
workload,” Sullivan says. “Recognizing
the volume of buildings that need to be
upgraded and employing the most
advanced tools to assess risk, Governor
Schwarzenegger’s healthcare reform pro-
posal embraces the use of HAZUS, the
latest risk assessment technology, to
more accurately prioritize which build-
ings pose the most risk of damage dur-
ing an earthquake.
“This new tool could reduce the num-
ber of buildings that need to meet the
2013 deadline by 40 percent.”
Sullivan says HAZUS could “help hos-
pitals better prioritize their needs and
reduce overall demand on the system.
“Based on our current records, on aver-
age, OSHPD holds the plans for 40 per-
cent of the approval process,” Sullivan
says. “The other 60 percent of the time
the owners/designers have the plans in
their possession for “back checks” or revi-
sions.” To reduce the overall time,
OSHPD is looking at a “phased-review
process” at a hospital in San Diego
County. “We are hoping it will reduce
the approval process by as much as five
months,” he says.
Pleasing the Client
Constructing the buildings to code can
be expensive regardless of other con-
flicts, Dumke says. To meet seismic
requirements, McCarthy’s team in
Panorama City erected 900, 50-foot con-
crete piles to help brace the frame.
“These buildings are expensive, and
they are quite heavy; all of the utilities
need to be braced and secured,” Dumke
explains. “The industry is just catching
up to how difficult it is to build these
types of jobs.”
But meeting strict code requirements
was not the biggest challenge for
McCarthy on the Panorama City project.
“The biggest challenge for us is that it’s
built on the existing Panorama City
Medical Center campus,”
Dumke says. The company
had to keep the adjacent,
functioning hospital accessi-
ble to the general public in a
safe manner. What made the
challenge less frustrating was
the fact that very little demo-
lition existed at the site and
they had excellent coopera-
tion from the Kaiser
Permanente staff and its
members.
McCarthy is scheduled to
secure the certificate of occu-
pancy in November, and
expects that the hospital will
open in 2008. “At the end of
the day, we’ve got a happy
client, and that was the No. 1
goal: leave the site with our
largest client being happy,”
Dumke asserts. “I think that
all parties involved, including
the surrounding neighbors
and community were
impressed with what we have
accomplished as a team. It
went beyond what some peo-
ple may have imagined.” ■