PROJECTS

•A $98 million expansion of Forest Park Medical Center in Dallas was recently completed. A 125,000-square-foot surgical-specialty hospital features 14 operating rooms and 12 intensive care unit rooms. The building also has 48 inpatient rooms, 16 of which are VIP suites with separate rooms for family members who stay overnight. The building's exterior includes a 30,000-square-foot roof garden area. A new, six-story, 138,000-square-foot medical office building connects to the hospital via the lobby. Ascension Group Architects designed the project and Adolfson & Peterson Construction was the general contractor.

•Scripps Health broke ground on the $456 million Scripps Prebys Cardiovascular Institute, La Jolla, Calif. The 383,000-square-foot building will feature 108 inpatient beds in private rooms, 60 intensive care beds, six operating rooms, and as many as six cardiac catheterization labs. It is scheduled to open for patient care in 2015. Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. is the construction management firm. McCarthy Building Companies Inc. is the design-assist general contractor and HOK Architects is the project architect.

•Endless Mountains Health Systems broke ground in January for a critical access hospital replacement facility on a new site in Montrose, Pa. Phase 1 is a three-story, 71,600-square-foot building, which includes emergency medicine, imaging, laboratory, surgery, inpatient beds and related support services. Construction management services are provided by Sordoni Construction Services of Forty Fort, Pa., and major financing is provided by the USDA Rural Development Program. The facility was designed by Stratton Brook Associates LLC of West Simsbury, Conn.

•Saint Luke's Hospital of Kansas City, Mo., kicked off renovations for a dedicated neuroscience facility to house its stroke and neuroscience programs. Formerly known as Saint Luke's Brain and Stroke Institute, it is now known as Saint Luke's Neuroscience Institute.  The $26.7 million renovation project will consolidate diagnostic, surgical, interventional, intensive care and other services into one neuroscience tower with approximately 88,000 square feet.

•Texas A&M Health Science Center completed a 130,000-square-foot clinical building on the Bryan campus. The $26 million facility is a Class A office, clinical and education space integrating ancillary medical services with physician practices, allied health college programs and the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. The new facility provides programs for the Texas A&M Health Science Center, the Texas Brain and Spine Institute, Mary Crowley Cancer Research Centers and Blinn College Allied Health programs. Rose Rock Capital, in partnership with U.S. HealthRealty, was the developer and provided financing for the project.  BOKA Powell LLC was the programmer, designer and architect of record. Skanska USA Building provided construction manager services for the project.

•South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, Mass., will expand the Emerson Building, adding 66,000 square feet and 60 beds for medical, surgical, orthopedic and cancer patients.

•Construction is underway to expand the George Washington (D.C.) University's hospital emergency department. The 3,500-square foot expansion is budgeted at $2.8 million. The project is expected to be completed by this fall.

NAME CHANGE

•In a move that capitalizes on its June 2011 affiliation agreement with Community Health Network, Westview Hospital, Indianapolis, Ind., has changed its name to Community Westview Hospital.

AWARD

•The Health Research & Educational Trust, an affiliate of the American Hospital Association, selected Maureen Bisognano, president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, as the recipient of the 2012 TRUST Award. Established in 2003, the TRUST Award honors individuals who have exhibited visionary leadership in the health care field and who symbolize HRET's mission to use research and education to improve health care quality in policy and practice. Bisognano is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine and serves on the Commonwealth Fund's Commission on a High Performance Health System. She is also an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston and research associate in the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Additionally, she is on the boards of the Commonwealth Fund, the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value and Mayo Clinic Health System-Eau Claire. This is the 10th year of the TRUST Award. HRET will honor Bisognano at a reception on July 19 in San Francisco, during the Health Forum/American Hospital Association Leadership Summit.

APPOINTMENTS

•David Perrott, M.D., was appointed senior vice president/chief medical officer of the California Hospital Association. Perrott is a board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon. He was senior vice president/chief medical officer at Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System.

•Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children appointed J.A. Herring, M.D., orthopedic surgeon and chief of staff for the past 34 years, to the new role of chief of staff emeritus. He will continue to work closely with the TSRHC medical leadership team, while maintaining his pediatric orthopedic services to patients. Daniel J. Sucato, M.D., TSRHC orthopedic surgeon and director of the Sarah M. and Charles E. Seay/Martha and Pat Beard Center for Excellence in Spine Research, was named chief of staff. B. Stephens Richards, M.D., TSRHC orthopedic surgeon, assistant chief of staff and medical director of inpatient services, was named to the new position of chief medical officer of TSRHC.

•Cindy Rodenhauser Stewart was named director of development at Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene (N.H.) She the director of development for The Colonial Theatre in Keene.

•Bruce Schwartz, M.D., deputy chairman and professor of clinical psychiatry of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, N.Y., and CEO, president and medical director of University Behavioral Associates and MBCIPA, is the 2012 chair of the American Hospital Association's Section for Psychiatric and Substance Abuse Services. Paul Summergrad, M.D., the Dr. Frances S. Arkin professor and chairman, department of psychology, and professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, is the chair-elect. Robin Henderson, director, behavioral health services, St. Charles Medical Center, Bend, Ore., is immediate-past chair. New members elected to serve for three-year terms, which began on Jan. 1, are: Jacob Cuellar, M.D., CEO, Peak Behavioral Health Services, Santa Teresa, N.M.; George A. Godlewski, associate vice president, division of psychiatry quality and safety, Geisinger Health System, Danville, Pa., and Lynn Dunn, director, mental health services, Advanced Practice & Magnet Coordinator, Froedtert Health Community Memorial Hospital, Menomonee Falls, Wis.

•LifePoint Hospitals promoted Leigh Ann Braswell to senior director, health information management services, from director, compliance education. Ron Evans was named senior director, physician services. He was director, Meditech Systems for LifePoint.

• John Palmer became director of media and public relations of the Ohio Hospital Association in January. He was the media and marketing communications manager for Ohio Dominican University.

RETIREMENT

•Steve McDermott, chief executive officer of Hill Physicians Medical Group, San Ramon, Calif., since its inception nearly 30 years ago, will retire at the end of March. His long-time business partner, Darryl Cardoza, the company's chief operating officer will be chief executive officer. Together, McDermott and Cardoza have built Hill Physicians into one of the largest and most successful medical groups in the nation with 3,700 participating physicians. McDermott, who turns 65 this year, will remain chairman of the board of PriMed, the management company he and Cardoza formed in 1981, which has been Hill Physicians' exclusive management company since 1984.

OPENING

•Advocate South Suburban Hospital in Hazel Crest, Ill. officially opened its new inpatient pediatric unit, Feb. 1st. The new unit is the area's largest pediatric department collaborating directly with a designated children's hospital, Advocate Hope Children's Hospital in Oak Lawn, Ill. The pediatric unit, with10 inpatient beds and 2 observations beds, offers pediatric services that combine extraordinary medical expertise with a child-centered philosophy in an environment designed with kids in mind.  It features all private rooms, accommodations for family, a friendly decorated atmosphere, a playroom and a full-time child life specialist to help children cope with their time in the hospital. Both hospitals are part of the Advocate Health Care system.

GIFT

•The Wasie Surgical Suites was named at the Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital, Hollywood, Fla. Last summer, The Wasie Foundation, a private charitable foundation that supports nonprofit organizations focused on health care and education, pledged up to $2.5 million in matching funds to support the new Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital. The Wasie Challenge was created to ensure Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital Foundation would achieve its capital campaign goal of raising $36 million for children's hospital. The grant, which will continue through July, 2012, matches dollar-for-dollar all new gifts and pledges to the Believe Capital Campaign starting at $20 and above, including increased sponsorship dollars from special events like the Memorial Classic and Tour de Broward. The grant has been significant in encouraging others to give at all levels.