Valley hospital gets seismic upgrade

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

A $12 million seismic upgrade at Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital got underway Wednesday, when officials broke ground on what is expected to be a two year project.
Along with upgrades to existing facilities, the project calls for 10,000 square feet of new construction that will house a new medical-surgical unit and updated radiology and imaging suite.
“There is a definite sense of pride and importance attached to having our own hospital here in this community,” said Tresha Sell, president of the Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital Foundation and co-chair of the building campaign. “These improvements will make it an even finer facility and will allow us to receive much of the medical care we need right her close to home.”


Janet O’Neill, a spokeswoman for Cottage Health System, said significant renovation and expansion will also take place in the emergency department, surgery suite, laboratory and front lobby.
The hospital is currently licensed for 20 private rooms, but accommodated only 310 inpatients during 2006. Although the total square footage of the hospital and number of facilities there will increase as a result of the upgrades, the number of private hospital rooms will fall to 11. O’Neill said this decrease is a result of treating on average two to three inpatients per day last year.
In the remaining rooms, O’Neill said individual temperature controls will be added, while landscaping improvements be undertaken on courtyards.
The hospital’s foundation has raised $5 million ot its $7 million fundraising goal. Cottage Health System will provide the remaining $5 million.
“We have been tremendously encouraged in this campaign by the early generosity of Valley residents,” Sell said.
Similar seismic upgrades and construction are currently under way at Santa Barbara and Goleta Cottage Hospitals as well.
At the Santa Barbara location, an effort to completely rebuild the hospital is currently underway and is expected to cost hundreds-of-millions.
The need for reconstruction stems from California’s mandatory seismic codes update, which requires all hospitals to undergo extensive changes -- either by reconstruction or retrofitting by 2013 -- or face closure.
Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital is also undergoing a complete rebuild, which is expected to cost $99 million.
Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital treated 6,226 patients in its emergency department and prided more than 30.,000 laboratory, radiology and other outpatient procedures.