Samaritan may review project budget, design

MOSES LAKE — Samaritan Healthcare officials will resume the planning process for building a new hospital in Moses Lake, after hospital district commissioners gave the go-ahead at a meeting Tuesday.

The goal is to start construction in spring 2021.

In April 2019, commissioners approved building a new hospital, and construction tentatively was scheduled to start this summer. But the COVID-19 outbreak stopped work on the project in March.

Consultant Joe Kunkel said that was due to the need to focus on the outbreak, uncertainty about the hospital’s role during the outbreak, and the need for the hospital to preserve its cash in light of its reduced operations, which were limited by state mandate due to the outbreak.

Hospital district officials are still working on obtaining project financing from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A meeting with the USDA is scheduled for next week, Samaritan CEO Theresa Sullivan said.

Chief financial officer Alex Town said hospital officials hope to finalize the loan in July. If the loan is approved, hospital district officials would have five years to spend the money, Town said.

Kunkel said the first step to restarting the project will be evaluating where it left off, a process he estimated would take about two months and cost about $275,000. It would include a review of the project budget, to determine if the project still fits within the available financing and if the assumptions underlying the project are still valid.

He suggested reviewing the design to incorporate any lessons from the coronavirus outbreak and to decide if any changes are needed.

Project planners should be ready to start working on the final construction documents by September, Kunkel said. Planners also will be working to obtain required land use permits and determine equipment needs.

Hospital officials have met with Grant County officials about a proposal to house the county morgue in the new hospital, Kunkel said. Currently the morgue is located at Samaritan Hospital.

A final decision on the morgue would come during the construction document preparation. Samaritan officials also will start discussing the fate of the existing hospital.

Kunkel said the preparation for construction would last through the end of 2020 and would cost about $1.7 million.

The plan would come back to the commissioners for review in early 2021. If commissioners decide to continue, the final preconstruction work would cost about $650,000.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached at [email protected].