Air handlers in small spaces allow big expansion for Arizona medical center
"We needed space. The Phoenix area is growing rapidly and so was the need for medical treatment facilities. In 1999 we quantified the need to expand this facility, and we needed to do it quickly." Larry Greer, director of facilities services from Desert Samaritan Medical Center in Mesa, AZ, thus describes the urgency for a facility expansion. "Every hospital in the area was filled, and there was a critical need for more space."
Plans were developed in 1999 for a 160,000-sq-ft expansion, ranging from one to four stories and encompassing six surgical suites, labor and delivery rooms, an intensive care area, patient rooms, an endoscopy lab, and a children's center. "Normally this project would take about 18 months but, because of the critical need, we had to get it done in 12."