TCMH buzz

Hard Hats Not Required in Hospital’s Front Lobby

houstonherald — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 20:29:52 +0000

Visitors and patients seated in the front lobby at Texas County Memorial Hospital this week might have wondered if they needed a hard hat while they waited for their appointment.

A variety of loud screeching, hammering, drilling and cutting sounds emanated from behind the boarded up glass windows and doors.

“It sounds like they might come through,” a TCMH volunteer said from her seat in the Auxiliary gift shop. Also boarded up, the gift shop has a front row seat for the sounds.

If the glass wasn’t boarded up, everyone could have seen a hole being dug for the elevator pit for the new construction at the hospital. Currently, concrete and steel are being placed in the hole that will house two elevators–one for patient and staff traffic and one for visitor traffic.

Construction workers are in the hole that's been dug for the elevator pit.

Next to the elevator pit is the scaffolding and some of the structure for a stairwell. This stairwell on the Northeast side of the new construction will be one of two in the new construction.

This stairwell will be two stories high, accessing the first (ground floor) and second floors.

A second stairwell is located on the Southwest corner of the new construction, and it will go down into the basement in addition to the first and second floors.

A crane is used to help place forms needed for pouring concrete in the basement and basement stairwell.

Weather permitting the concrete for the basement stairwell and other parts of the basement will begin again on Monday.

Good Weather Keeps Project Moving On Schedule

houstonherald — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:48:03 +0000

At the TCMH Board of Trustees meeting last Tuesday, Wes Murray, chief executive officer at TCMH, reported to board members that “very good weather” has helped with construction progress at TCMH. “We have already been able to do some things that were scheduled for a few weeks from now when the weather would typically be better,” he said.

After excavating the basement for the expansion addition, contractors have been drilling a series of holes in the ground, six feet into solid rock. The holes are filled with rebar and a solidifying grout mixture. Steel plates will be attached to the rebar, and concrete slab will be poured on top of the steel plates.

The drill holes into solid rock ranged from 71 feet in depth to six feet in depth. “We are anchored to a very secure foundation,” Murray explained.

Water mains have been tapped into on both sides of the new construction and electricity cables have been run to the location for the new generator.

“Very good weather” aids construction progress

houstonherald — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:48:23 +0000

Wes Murray, CEO at Texas County Memorial Hospital, reported to board members at Tuesday’s monthly meeting that “very good weather” has helped with construction progress at the hospital.

“We have already been able to do some things that were scheduled for a few weeks from now when the weather would typically be better,” he said.

The drill holes into solid rock ranged from 71 feet in depth to six feet in depth.

“We are anchored to a very secure foundation,” Murray explained.

Water mains have been tapped into on both sides of the new construction and electricity cables have been run to the location for the new generator.

Ambassadors in High Places at TCMH

houstonherald — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:11:08 +0000

When Texas County Memorial Hospital began working toward an expansion project, employees were identified from many departments throughout the hospital as “Ambassadors” for the hospital’s expansion project. At various times throughout the past few years, Wes Murray, TCMH CEO, meets with the Ambassador group and provides them with latest information on the hospital’s expansion project and answers any questions the employees may have. The employees are able to take that information back to their fellow employees, friends and family–a way to provide relevant, up-to-date information about the status of the expansion project.

Last week, the Ambassadors received a special opportunity to get a bird’s eye view of the construction progress underway at TCMH. Murray escorted members of the group to the hospital’s rooftop to look, take photos and ask questions.

That's Wes pointing out something in "the big hole" to the Ambassadors.

The group was assembled on the rooftop of the hospital, over what is the front lobby. The East wing is sticking out on the left of the photo.

See the yellow skid steer loader in this photo? There's a manhole pipe sticking up behind it. The top of that pipe will eventually be flush with the future parking lot.

The area with white gravel is where the partial basement will be. The basement will contain mechanical rooms for the building and an EMS sleep area.

Here's another view where the manhole pipe is a little easier to see.

Quite a bit of dirt and rock have been moved at TCMH in recent weeks. Doss and Harper Quarry said that after the MODOT, TCMH used the most gravel from the quarry in 2011. Local truck drivers are delivering all the rock and gravel, too.

Murray is shown here with Ambassadors Howard Hughes; Chris Weaver; Leasa Lamb; Joyce Hull; Nancy Hayes and David Rosemann, director of environmental services and Bill Bridges, director of EMS.

The TCMH Front Awning Gets a New Home in Houston

houstonherald — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:19:44 +0000

Texas County Memorial Hospital offered the front awning, which was slated for demolition, to Downtown Houston Inc. to use as part of Lone Star Plaza in downtown Houston. L&R Industries in Cabool used a large crane and rigging to cut the awning off the front of the hospital. The awning was placed on the trailer of a semi-truck and escorted down Highway 63 and First Street to its new home in Houston.

Major changes beginning at TCMH

houstonherald — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:55:51 +0000

The temporary front entrance at TCMH.

Major changes are beginning to take place at Texas County Memorial Hospital.

The south parking lot is ready to receive asphalt. Light poles will go up in the lot this week, and the lot will receive asphalt on Monday.

The south lot will have 83 parking places and during the construction process, TCMH Medical Complex patients and hospital staff will primarily utilize the lot.

The main TCMH front entrance will close on Tuesday and patients and visitors will utilize a temporary front entrance routed through a portion of the hospital’s Mayuga Café. A glass wall will separate the cafeteria from hospital traffic.

TCMH construction crews will work with the city of Houston and the Houston Downtown Revitalization group to remove the canopy that is currently located at the hospital’s main entrance. The canopy will be relocated to the Lone Star Plaza in downtown Houston.

Following removal of the canopy, portions of the hospital’s front parking lot will be fenced off for the 59,000 square foot expansion project that includes a 13-bed emergency room, a radiology suite and a second-floor, 26-bed medical surgical floor.

The temporary front entrance is handicap accessible, but patients and visitors will no longer be able to drive through the entrance when dropping off patients.
All of the parking in the front of the hospital will be reserved for patients and visitors during the expansion construction.

Major Changes in Exterior Look of Hospital at Construction Moves Forward

houstonherald — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 19:26:51 +0000

The windows at the front of Texas County Memorial Hospital have been boarded up and “major changes will begin to take place” Wes Murray, chief executive officer at TCMH reported to hospital board members at their monthly meeting on Tuesday.

The South parking lot at TCMH is ready to receive asphalt. Light poles will go up in the lot this week, and the lot will receive asphalt on Monday.

The South lot will have 83 parking places, and during the construction process, TCMH Medical Complex patients and hospital staff will primarily utilize the lot.

“This timeline is fluid and flexible based on weather,” Murray explained, “But these changes will happen rapidly as soon as the weather permits.”

Murray noted that TCMH officials and officials from the US Department of Agriculture had their last “official” pre-construction meeting when contracts were handed out to the contractors on November 15^th.

“All of our obligations to the USDA and county commissioners have been met,” Murray said. “We will meet again with the USDA and the Texas County Commission to close on the documents when the project is complete.”

According to the terms of the contract, the expansion and related renovation work inside TCMH will be complete on August 24, 2013.

“It’s a good feeling to know that date even though it’s a long time from today,” Murray said.

“As we handed out the contracts to the construction companies last Tuesday, you could sense that everyone’s ready to get started on their part of this project,” Murray said.

Murray explained that TCMH clinic and hospital staff will work with patients and provide maps for navigating the hospital during the expansion construction.

The temporary front entrance is handicap accessible, but patients and visitors will no longer be able to drive through the entrance when dropping off patients.

“If a patient needs a wheelchair, the patient can be dropped off at the rear of the hospital—the hospital’s emergency room entrance—where wheelchairs are available,” Murray explained.

Murray noted that all of the parking in the front of the hospital will be reserved for patients and visitors during the expansion construction.

“There will be 40 parking spaces available in the front parking lot,” Murray said, noting that at peak times the front parking lot may be close to capacity requiring patients or visitors to utilize the South parking lot to access the hospital.

“We ask that everyone be patient during our construction,” Murray said. “In the end, we will have a net gain of additional parking spaces.”

Signed and Delivered: 27 contractors receive documents for TCMH project

houstonherald — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:09:26 +0000

Wes Murray, chief executive officer at TCMH and Mark Dethrow, USDA Rural Development area specialist, sign contracts.

Wes Murray, chief executive officer at TCMH and Mark Dethrow, USDA Rural Development area specialist, met with Matt Evans, JE Dunn project manager for the TCMH expansion and renovation project, on Tuesday.

Murray and Dethrow signed 27 contracts, four copies of each contract. There was one book of contracts for TCMH, USDA, and JE Dunn and each contractor also received a signed copy of their company’s individual contract.

Murray opens the meeting with the contractors.

Following the signing of the documents, officials from TCMH, JE Dunn, USDA and HMN Architects met with all of the project contractors at the Texas County Fairgrounds.
Murray opened the meeting and introduced TCMH staff to the contractors. The individual contracts were handed out to each contractor after the meeting.

TCMH building project official after loan documents signed

houstonherald — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 17:00:12 +0000

In a special meeting of the Texas County Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees held recently, hospital board members signed documents to close on the $18.1 million USDA loan to expand and renovate the hospital. Pictured are, from left:Êboard members Janet Wiseman, Omanez Fockler, Jane Kirkwood and TCMH chief financial officer Linda Pamperien.

“We have an official project.”
Wes Murray, chief executive officer at Texas County Memorial Hospital, reported those words last week to board members at their monthly meeting.
While bulldozers moved dirt and rock and excavators dug trenches outside the hospital, Murray explained that the signing of the loan documents by the Texas County Commissioners was a “big step” in formalizing the $18.1 million expansion and renovation project at the county hospital.
Murray complimented the construction crews at work creating a new parking area and doing preliminary site work for the expansion portion of the project.
“About the entire former south parking lot has been prepped for asphalt,” Murray said, explaining that in some places 36 inches of dirt was removed. Base rock will be laid on top of the dirt. Asphalt is slated to be put down in mid-November.
Construction companies recently worked at TCMH on a Saturday in order to accommodate the hospital and clinic, which are typically much busier during the week than on the weekend. Doss and Harper Quarry in Houston also stayed open late and on a Saturday to provide gravel for weekend excavation work at TCMH.
“The cooperation of these subcontractors and suppliers really helped us,” Murray said. “Doing some of the work on the weekend that required closing our drives and parking areas was much less intrusive for our patients.”
Murray gave special thanks to the clinic patients and the clinic physicians and staff for their patience during the construction process.
“The construction is a great inconvenience to our clinic patients and to the doctors and the staff members at our clinic here in Houston, but they have been very supportive and understanding about the work that is taking place,” Murray said.
Murray also noted that some of the current subcontractors have employed Texas County residents as part of their crew.
“It’s great to see the pride that these employees take in working in the community they call home,” Murray said, adding that the contractors are utilizing local businesses for food, gas, sleeping quarters and other things.
“We believe that the expansion of the hospital will provide an additional boost to the economy of Texas County, but some economic benefits of this expansion project are being experienced right now,” Murray said.
When the south parking lot is complete, 88 parking spaces will be available to patients, visitors and staff. Half to two-thirds of the front parking lot will be blocked for construction use, and all of the remaining parking in front of the hospital will be designated for patient and visitor use.
“Our hospital’s safety committee has beefed up the employee parking policy, and we will be enforcing the policy during construction,” Murray explained. “We want to make sure that our patients and visitors have the best available parking spaces.”
Within the next couple of weeks, the physical therapy department and the Auxiliary Gift Shop at TCMH will have their windows boarded up. The canopy at the hospital’s front entrance will be removed.
The hospital’s main entrance will be closed, and a temporary entrance with a covered walkway will be installed at the Mayuga Café, the hospital’s cafeteria.
During the expansion portion of construction, patients can be dropped off at the front temporary entrance or at the back, emergency room entrance of the hospital where wheelchairs and other assistance will be available.
“It will be cumbersome, but we’ll get through it,” Murray said, explaining that hospital personnel are already gearing up to communicate with patients and visitors about routes and parking around the hospital and clinic.
Murray also reported that the hospital’s board of trustees and Texas County Commission will meet one more time when the expansion and renovation are complete to sign the final set of loan documents from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that has made the low-interest loan to TCMH for the project.
“I am looking forward to that day,” Murray said.

Interest rate drops for TCMH expansion project just before loan closing

houstonherald — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 15:07:21 +0000

Due to a recent drop in interest rates, Texas County Memorial Hospital will save almost $1 million in interest on the hospital’s $18.1 million expansion and renovation loan, board members heard last week at their monthly meeting.

The quarter point interest rate drop brings the rate down to 3.75 percent from 4 percent.
TCMH officials plan to meet on Oct. 19 with members of the Texas County Commission to close on the hospital’s low-interest loan to finance a 59,000 square foot hospital expansion and renovation project.

The loan closing comes a year after receiving word from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Rural Development that financing had been approved for the hospital project.

“We were able to postpone closing on the loan by a couple of weeks to take advantage of a potential interest rate drop,” said Wes Murray, TCMH chief executive officer. “We are pleased to be able to take advantage of this.”

The interest rate for the USDA loan is fixed at 3.75 percent for the life of the loan — 30 years. The USDA loan was made available through Economic Recovery Act funds. TCMH was one of several entities across the nation that received the stimulus funds for a project.