Women & Infants Hospital has hired Walsh Brothers Inc., the Boston firm that oversaw construction of Rhode Island Hospital’s new emergency room, as the construction manager for its planned $64-million, five-story expansion project.
The project, which received state “certificate of need” approval in early November, will add 144,500 square feet to Women & Infants’ Dudley Street campus, with a new two-floor, 80-bed neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU) and 30 new obstetrical rooms.
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The new NICU is meant not only to ease overcrowding, but to allow for a new “family-centered” care model with individual patient rooms, instead of a large shared area.
The Boston architecture firm of Anshen Allen and Rothman has already begun design work. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2007, with an opening slated for early 2009.
Walsh Brothers will guide the construction process, working with hospital officials and the architects. The firm was selected from an initial field of 11 firms by the Women & Infants’ Project Coordinating Committee, with the endorsement of the hospital’s Project Executive Committee.
“We believe that Walsh Brothers has the right combination of health care construction experience, talent and creativity to help Women & Infants carry this project through,” said Patrice DiMario, senior vice president for patient support services.
Walsh Brothers is a fourth-generation, family-owned construction management firm headquartered in Boston, with an office in Providence. The firm, founded in 1901, has extensive experience with health care construction, including the recently completed five-story Bridge Building at Rhode Island Hospital, which includes the new ER.
That project earned the firm a Build Rhode Island Award from the Rhode Island Associated General Contractors. Other local clients include Brown University and Providence College.
Women & Infants delivers about 73 percent of all babies born in the state – over 9,600 last year, more than any other New England hospital – and it serves as a regional hub for women and babies who need the most advanced and intensive medical services.
The planned addition, which along with the new NICU and obstetric beds will include more space for family services, is the biggest building project for Women & Infants since it opened its building at Gay and Dudley Streets 19 years ago.
Dr. David R. Gifford, the state health director, approved the plan on the condition that Women & Infants work to develop new community partnerships to improve women’s primary care and prenatal care, reduce premature births, and ensure continued care for babies who come out of the NICU.
