Kaiser Permanente previews new Redwood City Hospital with ribbon-cutting

Kaiser Permanente cut the ribbon at the entrance to its new Redwood City Hospital, during a “preview party” for the new structure. Rising 7 stories above the intersection of Veterans Boulevard and Walnut Street, the warm-colored beige building is now complete, and workers are doing what are called “punch list” minor repairs. The first patients will be moved from the original hospital next door in mid-December.
“This has been a long time coming and I’m really excited that we’re just about ready to move in,” said Dr. Jim O’Donnell, pediatrician and the Physician-in-Chief of the medical center. Dr. O’Donnell and Kaiser Permanente Senior Vice President and Area Manager Frank Beirne held the giant scissors as they sliced through the red ribbon.
The ribbon-cutting took place in a group of invited Kaiser Permanente leaders and local politicians. Among them was US Congressmember Jackie Speier, who reminisced that Kaiser Permanente essentially paid for her college education.
“Many years ago, my parents owned a piece of property in South San Francisco,” Speier told the crowd, “ and Kaiser Permanente needed some parking for a medical center nearby, so my folks rented the property to KP, and that money paid for my college.”
Her story got a laugh form the nearly 100 city, county, state and federal officials who came together with Kaiser Permanente leaders to celebrate the new 149-bed, 280,000 square foot structure that was completed on time and on budget by the local Rudolph and Sletton Construction team. But it almost wasn’t, said Kaiser Permanente Chairman and CEO Bernard Tyson in his speech to the crowd..
Tyson admitted he had doubts about building a new hospital to replace the seismically-challenged 1968 building on Veterans Boulevard. But he cited the excellent leadership of Kaiser Permanente Redwood City for their dedication and determination to provide outstanding health care that convinced him a new structure was needed.
The new hospital is right next door to the original building. The new structure has mainly private rooms, with private baths, and pull-out couches for family and friends to stay the night. Each room has a ceiling-mounted electric lift for patient mobility. And a large, wall-mounted flat-screen teevee at the foot of the bed is a patient-controlled electronic “whiteboard” allow ing those in the hospital to view their caregivers, review their daily schedules, order food, surf the web, email and watch movies.
“This is a moment of pride for our team of caregivers,” said Frank Beirne, the hospital’s Senior Vice President and Area Manager. “We’re now in a position to offer our community and Kaiser Permanente members a new home for our high quality, safe, and affordable health care.”
The Kaiser Permanente Redwood City hospital is a regional center for Advanced Neuroscience and Neurosurgery. As a result, the surgical floor is equipped with specialized OR’s for delicate cranial operations. There is a greatly expanded Emergency Department with 26 individual treatment rooms. And a robust electronic medical record links all parts of the hospital, the medical center campus, and all of Kaiser Permanente in Northern California, so doctors and members have access to patient health records at all point of contact.