Seattle-based Howard S. Wright Constructors has been selected to oversee the pending construction of a critical access hospital on San Juan Island.
The selection of Howard S. Wright as general contractor and construction manager of the upcoming building project was announced today by the Peace Island Medical Center steering committee. The selection of the Seattle-based construction firm follows an extensive request-for-proposal and interview process, conducted by the PIMC steering committee and leaders of PeaceHealth.
According to Barbara Cable, chairwoman of PIMC’s design committee, Howard S. Wright’s determination to use local subcontractors and suppliers in building the hospital, which is scheduled to open in the summer of 2012, helped to sway the committee’s decision.
“Howard S. Wright brings to us a strong background in building healthcare facilities that promote health and healing in the communities they serve,” Cable said in a PIMC press release. “While this choice was unanimous for our committee, it was a difficult one, given the number of highly qualified firms who were part of this proposal process. Of particular significance was HSW’s determination to use local subcontractors and suppliers as often as possible.”
According to PIMC, Howard S. Wright, in addition to its extensive experience building hospitals and medical facilities across the Pacific Northwest, is considered a leader in green construction practices and in creating sustainable solutions that will establish Peace Island Medical Center as a model for conservation in the San Juan Island community, and throughout the region.
In July 2009, PeaceHealth signed a purchase agreement on a 22-acre site on which the new medical center will be built. Located in the 100 block of San Juan Valley Road, the property borders Friday Harbor Airport and is just minutes from downtown Friday Harbor. When completed, the facility will include an expanded primary care and specialty clinic, an expanded diagnostic services center, a 24-hour emergency room and a 10-bed critical access hospital.
“With our design process now underway, we’re pleased to bring Howard S. Wright into the community and begin including their construction expertise in our work,” said PeaceHealth’s Jim Barnhart, who is leading planning and implementation of the project. “Over the next two years, we look forward to working with the architectural team from Mahlum, Howard S. Wright and all island residents as we build Peace Island Medical Center.”
PeaceHealth is a Washington-based not-for-profit health care system serving multiple rural and urban communities in Washington, Oregon and Alaska for more than a century. It operates three Northwest critical access hospitals in communities considered either small and/or remote. PeaceHealth was ranked as one of the top five quality-of-care health care systems in the country, and the leading system in the West, according to research published in the June 2008 edition of the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety.
For more information, visit www.peacehealth.org.
