Hospital Contruction Costs Soar Over 20% In One Year

On July 26, 2005, the Palomar Pomerado Health (PPH) district held a meeting to listen to a presentation by Rudolph and Sletten, General and Engineering Contractors, regarding cost and market trends in California Hospital Construction.

Between 2004 and 2005, hospital construction costs have soared. The estimated construction cost for PPH to implement its Facilies Master Plan may have increased by over 20%. The original budget by PPH for implementing the nearly $800 million master facilities plan contemplated a yearly increase of only 5% per year.

Why is this important to Escondido?

Because PPH has promised to use over $70 million of Prop. BB money to upgrade Palomar Medical Center (PMC) AFTER the new hospital is built. In the timeline of the PPH Facilities Master Plan, PMC is the last project. If the other projects are over budget, will the shortfall be taken from the money for upgrading PMC?

With respect to Prop. BB, PMC may become the Highway 76 of the TransNet tax -- promised but never delivered!

Two days after this presentation on the soaring cost of hospital construction, PPH had a community forum in Escondido and presented an elaborate revitalization plan for the existing PMC site.

The PPH timeline from the Facilities Master Plan is below.


The slides for the hospital cost presentation at PPH can be found at:
http://civics.robroy.cc/HospitalCosts04-05h150.PDF