Providence, Saint Joseph Medical Center – O2 Yard

The Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center campus is the location of many ongoing projects for The Stahl Companies, the largest of which are the new Emergency Department and Urgent Care buildings. 

A component of this large and exciting project was to build a new O2 Yard to carry additional capacity to accommodate the two new buildings on campus. 

At the onset of COVID, necessary changes became apparent for this part of the ED project. With thoughtful but swift consideration, it was revised to address the new challenges.  

COVID patient requirements substantially increased the oxygen demands in the hospital. The existing vaporizers were freezing (not allowing for oxygen flow) due to the increased demand. Therefore, the O2 yard project was redesigned for a larger capacity. The revised plans included additional power, a larger concrete pad to be constructed adjacent to the soon-to-be-obsolete yard, replacement of the 3,000- and 5,000-gallon tanks with new 5,000- and 9,000-gallon tanks, manifolds, piping, controls, new fence, and bollards were sent back through OSHPD for approval.  

With the existing yard located in the middle of the ambulance drop-off area, there were considerable logistics to be coordinated and the entire project team worked hard to bring the new O2 yard online as quickly as possible.  

The TIO milestone was achieved and signed off by OSHPD. Months of coordination with the hospital staff, respiratory caregivers, and experts in the field of installation and inspections took place in order to arrive at the “Go Live” date.  The cutover from old to new was scheduled to take place over a 10-hour period during the weekend. During this time, the hospital was back fed by temporary systems to eliminate any impacts to operations. CDPH was present to observe the work, and all inspections were completed as scheduled. The result is a much-improved system that is very beneficial to the hospital. 

As stated by Sr. PM, Alex Pena, “The existing infrastructure was insufficient, but now it runs like a Ferrari!”