PORT ANGELES — Even as it prepares to start erecting a new medical office building, Olympic Medical Center is finishing some smaller capital improvements.
CEO Eric Lewis told Clallam County Hospital District 2 commissioners last week that expansion of OMC’s emergency department will be finished by mid-June.
A remodeling of the current emergency room will follow, with the entire expanded department ready by the first week of July, Lewis said.
Work on the emergency department started late last August.
The $1.8 million project will increase its capacity from 14 to 20 beds, two of which will be dedicated to mental health and drug-abuse cases.
They will help OMC be in compliance with a state Supreme Court ruling that boarding psychiatric patients without treating them is unlawful.
The 2,800-square-foot expansion was contracted to Rush Commercial of Gig Harbor.
Responding to a query from Commissioner Jim Cammack, Lewis said traffic at the emergency department has increased, largely due to patients newly insured under the Affordable Care Act.
“The ultimate goal will be to bring that back down,” he said, as more patients are directed to primary-care doctors or the new medical office building’s walk-in clinic, freeing the ER for true emergencies.
Meanwhile, remodeling nears completion on new offices for Olympic Home Health in a building OMC bought in February at 801 E. Front St.
One of the building’s five suites will be leased to Catholic Health Services, and one will remain vacant for the time being, Lewis said.
The other suites will provide new headquarters for the home health service whose present building at 920 Caroline St. will be razed in the first phase starting this summer of constructing the office building at Caroline and Race streets.
The Front Street structure once housed a Papa Murphy’s Take ’N’ Bake Pizza outlet but never had full occupancy after it was built in 2007.
OMC was the winning bidder with the $460,000 offer it made to the 8,700-square-foot bankrupt building’s receivers.
Remodeling it will cost another $250,000 to $275,000, Lewis told the commissioners at the Wednesday meeting.
“We’re really doing this space correctly to give us decades-long use,” he said.
Olympic Home Health also will have auxiliary quarters in the Sequim Medical Plaza.
By August, Lewis said, remodeling and reflooring the second story of the hospital at 939 Caroline St. will be complete.
Strait Flooring of Sequim won the $105,080 contract for the four-month project that replaced carpeting with hard rubber that is both quieter and more germ-free.
“The staff is very happy with the ease with which they push patients over the new surface,” Lewis said.
The commissioners on Wednesday also approved the $85,045 repainting of the east and north sides of the hospital. Its south and west sides were repainted last year.
In other action Wednesday, commissioners heard that OMC received $39.2 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2015.
Julie Rukstad, chief financial officer, said the $1.535 million — 4 percent — rise was partially due to an 11 percent rise in patient days over the first quarter of 2014.
“It’s all driven by volume,” she said, adding that the period ending in March marked the third quarter of positive cash flow for the medical center.
Eighty-two percent of OMC’s patients, she said, are covered by government insurance programs.
Commissioners also approved:
■ A $2,300-per-day agreement with Dr. Kurt Norman for part-time duty at the Sequim Cancer Center.
■ An increase from $130,000 to $180,000 per year for Dr. Jennifer Carl, rehabilitation specialist, for increased employment at the Sequim Specialty Clinic.
■ Hiring Dr. Martin Korb from Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital as an OMC hospitalist at $1,310 per 12-hour shift.
■ Hiring Dr. Eric Hempel from Klamath Falls, Ore., for $182,547 per year plus a $35,000 signing bonus and $10,000-per-year retention bonus for four years.
■ Spending $111,415 for a new computerized time and attendance system from Kronos Inc.
■ Allocating $81,195 for a new computer server from Cisco Systems Inc.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.