After three hours of discussion, Allen County Hospital trustees narrowed the list of prospective construction management firms from 10 to three.
Trustees reviewed prospectuses of the 10 firms. Items of particular interest were their experience in constructing critical access hospitals, their tendency to use local labor and their interest in rural markets.
The firms submitting proposals were: BD Construction, Kearney, Neb., Crossland Construction, Columbus, Hutton Construction, Wichita, JE Dunn, Wichita, Key/Cooper, Wichita, Murray Company, Overland Park, Purdum Construction, Overland Park, McCown Gordon Construction, Kansas City, Mo., Nabholz Construction, Lenexa, and Universal Construction/Hofer & Hofer Assoc., Lenexa and Humboldt.
Upon review, several fell short of the mark.
Trustees settled on four firms, then heeded advice of Steve Lewallen of Hospital Facilities Group to reduce the list.
“The interview process comes at quite a cost. As much as $10,000 or more,” Lewallen said of the presentations that include the top brass of each company.
The three firms which will vie for the $16 million, 25-bed hospital are JE Dunn, Hutton and Murray.
In JE Dunn’s favor is that it has completed more than 50 critical access and rural hospitals, including those in Marysville, Atchinson, Fredonia, Hiawatha, Paola and Cameron and Lamar, Mo. JE Dunne was founded in Kansas City in 1924 and has 600 employees.
Hutton Construction is a relatively new company, established in 1992. The Wichita firm has 120 employees. Similar projects under way include new hospitals in Arkansas City, Kearney, Neb. and Stanton Texas. It’s also working on additions and remodels on hospitals in Beloit, El Dorado and Marion. Recently completed projects include a surgery center in Newton, the Wichita Clinic, the hospital in Lakin and extensive renovations to Via Christi Regional Medical Center in Wichita.
Murray Company was founded in 1959 with offices in Kansas City and St. Louis and a work force of 40. It touts its speciality with rural health care and its participation with local or regional contractors. It lists similar-sized projects of either building new or renovating and expanding hospitals in Greensburg, Parsons, Emporia, Neodesha and Johnson City. Architects with Hospital Facilites Group, and who have been hired to draw up the new hospital, are most familiar with Murray, which assisted with the Master Plan Report that laid the groundwork for the hospital initiative last summer.
The three firms have until Jan. 7 to submit more detailed documents, including fees, for trustees to review before Jan. 11 interviews with each.
Before then, trustees will check references. Harry Lee, trustee chairman, will contact hospital board chairmen that have had business with one or more of the firms. Karen Gilpin, former director of nursing, will contact directors that now work in hospitals built by them. And trustee Tom Miller, experienced in construction himself, will contact maintenance directors at hospitals built by the firms.
IN OTHER action, Dr. Brian Wolfe approached trustees about appointing Dr. Timothy Spears, the chief of staff of Allen County Hospital, or his designee as a non-voting member of the board. Trustees agreed such input would be helpful and approved the appointment.
