Plenary Health delivers key to new surgical centre in Kelowna

Plenary Health presented Interior Health with an oversized ceremonial key representing the handover of the first three floors of the new Interior Heart and Surgical Centre today.

The ceremonial handing over of the key marks the successful completion of construction of floors one through three, which will open to patients on September 28, 2015.

“This milestone marks an important step in the long-term partnership between Interior Health and Plenary Health,” said Mike Marasco, CEO of Plenary Health. “It is the end of the first phase of construction, and the beginning of a 30-year journey together, in which this community will receive local access to health care in a state-of-the-art, well-maintained facility, among the best in North America.”

“This is great news as we are another step closer to the opening of the Interior Heart and Surgical Centre – a top notch facility, which will save lives,” said Kelowna-Lake Country MLA Norm Letnick. “The facility includes capacity for a total of 15 operating rooms, including two dedicated cardiac ORs where up to 600 open heart procedures per year will be performed.”

Plenary Health was selected by Interior Health in 2012 to design, build, finance and maintain the new Interior Heart and Surgical Centre (IHSC). Plenary Health is a consortium that includes the Plenary Group, PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc., Johnson Controls LP, HOK Architects, and CEI Architecture Planning Interiors.

“We are very proud to celebrate the successful construction of this phase of the new Interior Heart and Surgical Centre, on time and on-budget”, said Sean Brock, Vice President & District Manager, PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc.. “We could not have done it without the dedication, expertise and support of so many local partners, suppliers, and especially the men and women, “the builders”, who worked on the site every day, who ensured the success of this project.”

A key part of the partnership between Interior Health and Plenary Health is the maintenance of the new IHSC. Through Johnson Controls, Plenary Health will provide facility maintenance service of the IHSC from now until 2045.

“Johnson Controls’ involvement in this project began during the bid, and subsequent design and construction phase, and it is a great day to see that work come to fruition,” Michael Mitchell, Director – P3 Infrastructure Operations, Johnson Controls LP. “We now turn our attention to the important task of maintaining and operating this facility over the next three decades, to ensure it remains a sound and sturdy cornerstone of this community for generations to come.”

With the keys to the building in hand, upwards of 700 Interior Health employees, physicians and volunteers will now start going through building orientation and training. New equipment, computers and furniture will also be installed over the coming months.

“On behalf of Interior Health, I congratulate all of our partners at Plenary Health on delivering this beautiful, modern building,” said Erwin Malzer, Interior Health board chair. “When we open the doors of this fantastic facility in September, we know that our patients and their families will immediately see that this is one of the best places to receive care in B.C.”

The new IHSC is 152,000 square feet in size – and includes:

• State-of-the-art surgical unit with capacity for 15 operating rooms (including two cardiac operating rooms and a Hybrid operating room)
• 45 private pre-operative patient rooms 
• new and expanded medical device reprocessing (sterilization) department
• new perinatal (before/after birth) unit including its own operating room for elective C-sections (opens in spring 2016).