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Construction crews have already begun work on the new Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital. Photos by Victor Maccharoli.

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Ground breaks on new Goleta hospital

By ERIC LINDBERG — March 12, 2010

With gleaming shovels in hand yesterday, community leaders ceremonially turned the soil on what will soon form the foundation of the new Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital, a much-expanded 52-bed acute care facility.

Workers have already started driving rock columns deep into the earth to anchor the foundation of the building to meet stringent earthquake standards, but yesterday’s groundbreaking ceremony near the intersection of Hollister and Patterson avenues gave hospital officials an opportunity to boast about the future facility.

“It is truly a community hospital we are about to rebuild for the community of Goleta,” said Ron Werft, president and CEO of Cottage Health System.

The 152,000 square-foot, two-story hospital should be completed in two years and will include two medical and surgical inpatient units with a total of 44 beds, along with an eight-bed observation unit.

Diane Wisby, the hospital’s vice president, said the plans for the new facility have been in the works for more than half a decade. Throughout the process, efficient design and patient privacy have remained key priorities.

All patient rooms are private, she said, and the layout is intended to create a healing environment, not only indoors but on the hospital grounds as well.

“We are going to be expanding much of what we have now,” Wisby said.

The emergency department will more than double, from eight treatment rooms to 20, while the hospital’s wound management center will add two more hyperbaric oxygen chambers for a total of four.

Other features include comprehensive lab, radiology, physical therapy and respiratory therapy services, along with a dedicated endoscopy unit.

Dr. Christopher Flynn, chief of staff at the hospital, said the design will integrate the latest in medical technology while allowing for adaptability as technological advances take place throughout the coming years.

He took the opportunity to look back on the hospital’s history, describing how seven physicians founded the facility in January 1966, when he was just 2 years old.

“Today, we have a chance to look to the future,” he said.

Hospital officials hope to raise more than $10 million in community donations to put toward the $105 million cost of the new hospital in Goleta. Along with donations, the project is being funded by operating reserves and tax-exempt bonds.

The capital campaign has already garnered nearly $4 million in donations, including an anonymous gift of $1 million and a leadership gift of $350,000 from the Santa Barbara Foundation.

Gretchen Milligan, the chair of Cottage Health System’s board of directors, called yesterday’s groundbreaking ceremony a milestone, noting that less than a decade and a half ago, the hospital was struggling to maintain its financial footing.

“Now here we are, 14 years later, celebrating not only the hospital’s excellence, but also its rebuilding,” she said.

The project in Goleta is only one of a handful of major projects that Cottage Health System is pursuing. The renovation of Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital is well underway, Werft said, and staff should be moving into two new patient pavilions by late next year.

An addition to the hospital in Santa Ynez is close to completion, and hospital officials are planning to break ground on the St. Francis housing project in Santa Barbara soon.

“We’re building hospitals everywhere we can,” Werft said.

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