Hospital
Pawnee Valley construction source of pride
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ARNED — As the construction continues at the Pawnee Valley Community Hospital, the goal of a new hospital gets closer every day. The $18.3 million hospital is constructed with funding from Medicare reimbursement, profit from Pawnee Valley Community Hospital, a 1 percent sales tax and an annual 6-mill county-wide healthcare levy. Sometime in February, Pawnee Valley Community Hospital employees will begin moving to the new facility. “The work has gone extremely well and has surpassed expectations,” said Matt Heyn, Pawnee Valley Community Hospital administrator. “The front entrance is a state-of-theart health care facility. It bodes confidence. When they see that majestic main entrance, they will believe they will get high quality healthcare.” Heyn attends regular construction meetings to keep abreast with construction progress. “Those regular meetings are extremely important because everyone gets to provide input and ask questions,” Heyn said. “You have to keep communication in place for two weeks at a time.” Heyn said Pawnee County commissioners recently toured the facility. “By walking through the facility, they saw the progress and got answers to any questions they had,” Heyn said. Pawnee County commissioner John Haas has attended construction meetings and kept commissioners advised on progress. “I’m extremely proud of the fact that we’re building an outstanding facility, perhaps the finest critical care access in the state,” Haas said. “We’ll look back some day and will be pleased we took this step.” Haas attends construction
meetings twice a week to keep abreast of current progress as a representative of the commission. As many as 84 workers work at the same time. “It amazes me on how knowledgeable and what a tremendous amount of ex-
pertise the contractors, sub-contractors and architects exhibit,” Haas said. “When they are all working inside, each contractor carves out their own space. The general contractor makes sure everything works smoothly. They go about their
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work in a professional, coordinated effort.” Mike Smith serves as job superintendent for Murray Company, Overland Park, the construction firm. “The employees are well are well directed by Mike Smith and their foremen,” Heyn said. They get directions and go to work. They are working very hard and very diligently.” The Health Facilities Group, Wichita, is the architectural firm. Smith sees the sub-contractors at safety and superintendent’s meetings once a week. Smith sees each company’s owners twice a month. “We are very proud of Murray Company, which is fulfilling all our expectations,” Haas said. “Everything is right on schedule and costs have been reasonable. It’s been fun to see it all take place.” Haas said Pawnee Valley Community Hospital administrator Matt Heyn has kept the business side stable under the See Hospital, 29