A Vision for the New Hospital

Mission and Vision

The OMHS Board of Directors has charted a course for the new hospital.

  • Mission
    To build an affordable regional hospital that provides safe, high-quality care that will meet the healthcare needs of the region.
  • Vision
    To deliver a regional hospital that is high-quality, environmentally friendly, flexible, innovative and futuristic, that meets the healthcare needs of the region.
  

About the Project

The Decision to Build

In January 2006, OMHS began a needs assessment for expanded medical facilities in the Owensboro area. After nine months of careful deliberations and meetings with key stakeholders, the Board of Directors elected to develop a business plan to build a new hospital. While OMHS is providing patients with state-of-the-art care in the current facility, the Board made its decision based on two important reasons:

Expanding Technology

Advances in medical care and communication are racing ahead, making it necessary to provide patients, physicians and staff with a facility that can accommodate new technologies. Additional space will also be required for updated intensive care units, operating rooms and other needs. No reasonable amount of remodeling of the current facility would enable us to meet these demands.

A Growing Service Area

Today, OMHS serves more than Daviess County. Increasingly, we are drawing patients from an 11-county region. As an emerging regional medical center, OMHS must have the additional capacity to serve an ever growing – and aging – patient population. In the coming years, patient admissions are expected to increase significantly. On the current campus, there is simply not enough space for the needed expansion.

In short, our goal of providing more effective and efficient care requires a facility designed to meet the growing needs of an expanding 21st century patient population.

  

Build New vs Renovate

At OMHS, patient care and safety are first and foremost. Everything we do is determined by these considerations. Because the cost of renovation and new construction are approximately the same, the decision to build new is based on many other factors. Here are a few:

Improving efficiency improves care

The new facility will be designed so patient rooms are more accessible to nurses and other caregivers. Patients will be closer to treatment areas and need to be moved less often. Reconfiguring the current space to provide similar efficiencies is more expensive and virtually impossible.

Caring for a patient’s family is important

The loving support of family is an important part of care at OMHS. Patient rooms in the new hospital will have space and accommodations for family members. 

The future of healthcare is wireless, paperless and filmless

Information technology is a key to improving patient care and safety. The new hospital would allow for innovations that improve communications, maximize our resources and enhance our care. Rewiring and retrofitting the current facility would not bring it up to tomorrow’s standards.

Plan for future expansion

The new hospital will be designed to make future expansion easier and more cost effective. The new facility will be able to adapt to our community’s needs well into this century. Our current campus would only allow very limited growth.

  

Site Selection

Pleasant Valley Site

  • Size: 160 acres
  • Location: Daniels Lane and Pleasant Valley Road, on the east side of Owensboro near Highway 60.
  • Elevation: 404 feet above sea level - 10 feet higher than the crest of the 1937 Great Flood

Site Selection Process

Choosing a site for the new OMHS facility was a carefully studied and well-informed decision. A leading firm specializing in hospital site selection presented 16 locations for consideration. Based on an extensive, 19- point analysis, the Pleasant Valley property was determined to be the best for some key reasons:

  • When the U.S. 60 bypass is completed, the location will offer convenient access for Owensboro residents as well as for those in the 11-county region we serve.
  • The site's 160 acres will provide space for much-needed parking and any future expansion.
  • Engineering studies show that the land can support a six-story or taller structure with access to infrastructure (sewer, water).
  • The site is environmentally safe.
  • Even with the minimal cost to resolve the flood plain issue, the site is still the most economical and appropriate for our community.

The Pleasant Valley site will enable us to build a patient-centered hospital that will meet the healthcare needs of our region well into the 21st century.

 

Aerial view of the Pleasant Valley site,
facing east. Click image for a larger view.

Flooding Concerns

There has been a lot of concern that the designation of the site as a flood plain will dramatically raise construction costs for the new OMHS hospital. However, this is not accurate. Even with the potential costs to resolve the flood plain issue, studies have shown that the Pleasant Valley site is still more economical than the alternate properties.

  • The current elevation of the property is 404 feet above sea level.
    This elevation is 10 feet higher than the 393.37 foot crest of the Ohio River during the Great Flood of 1937*.
  • Nevertheless, our architects used dirt to raise the building’s elevation even more, a common step in construction in Daviess County. 
    The required elevation for the hospital is above the 500-year flood level – a level of flooding that has a 0.2% chance of occurring any year.

OMHS is committed to the future health of our community and believes the Pleasant Valley site is the best option for the new facility.

*Source: Owensboro/Daviess County  Comprehensive Plan Section 740

Project Team

 Architects

  
 HGA Architects  An award-winning firm specializing in designs that are innovative, functional and cost-effective

 Civil Engineering

  
 Bryant Engineering  Owensboro-based company specializing in the planning, design and implementation of land development projects and associated
 infrastructure.

 Construction

  
 Turner Construction  Nashville-based firm consistently rated the #1 healthcare builder by Modern Healthcare

 Current Hospital

  
 The Lawrence Group  St. Louis-based specialists in urban design and master planning

 Engineering
 SSR Engineering  Forty years of healthcare facility design experience, with projects completed in more than 1,000 medical institutions nationwide

 Equipment Planning

  
 Mitchell Associates  Medical equipment experts 

 Geotechnical Engineering

  
 Associated Engineers  Owensboro-based company offering an array of civil, structural, geontechnical, environmental and mining consulting services. 

 Project Management

  
 KLMK Group  Richmond, Va.-based company specializing in development and planning of healthcare facilities 

 Site Selection and Analysis

  
 The Hammes Group  Engineering group specializing in hospital location analysis 

To build a hospital that lives up to our vision, OMHS has sought out companies with top-notch expertise and keen insight into current and future healthcare trends. This combination of knowledge and fresh thinking are producing innovation that will benefit our patients for years to come.

Economic Impact

OMHS currently employs more than 3,000 people and generates a total annual payroll of nearly $163 million. The new hospital will require even more physicians and healthcare workers as improved access to care and our growth as a regional referral center increase patient admissions. By generating new, high paying jobs to meet the demand, OMHS will remain an economic engine for our region.

The value of a state-of-the-art medical center also has a positive growth effect on our economy. Access to healthcare is an important quality of life issue for companies looking to relocate to a community.

The investment in a new hospital will improve the health—both physically and financially—of our region for years to come.

Other Frequently-Asked Questions about the new hospital

More questions? Send us your thoughts, ideas and suggestions through Town Forum!

Contractors

Looking to work on the new hospital building project? Get the information you need at the Turner Construction contractor website.