Officials at Wishard Hospital (recently renamed Eskenazi Health) are pleased that a project to build a new hospital is sticking to its schedule and budget.
They are also happy about going beyond their goals in getting minority, women and veteran owned businesses on board for the $754 million project.
“It’s been very good for our local economy that we’ve been able to hire a lot of contractors and create opportunities for a full range of enterprises,” said Matt Gutwein, president and CEO of the Health and Hospital Corp. of Marion County, which oversees Eskenazi. “We want this construction project to be available for every contractor and business in this county who would like to participate.”
Eskenazi has announced that 27.7 percent of its construction contract commitments are now going to minority, women and veteran owned businesses.
In each of the those categories, contract goals have been exceeded. The goal for minority owned businesses, for example, was 15 percent, but contract commitments have reached 15.7 percent. Nine percent of contracts have been given to women owned businesses, above the 8 percent goal. Over 3 percent of work has been awarded to veteran owned businesses.
The original goals were recommended by the City of Indianapolis, which has praised Eskenazi for putting its commitment to diversity in action by exceeding them.
“Eskenazi is meeting our shared goals in construction contracting,” said Greg Wilson, director of the city’s office of minority business development. “We are pleased to work with Eskenazi to maximize opportunities for minority, women and veteran businesses, a focus that is good for jobs and increasing the capacities and capabilities of our diverse enterprises in Indianapolis.”
The new Eskenazi project is expected to create over 4,400 jobs. A 1.2 million square-foot facility with 327 inpatient beds, as well as an adult Level I Trauma Center and burn center, is scheduled to open in 2014.
Out of the more than $309 million in contracts that have been available, over $85 million of them have been given to minority, women and veteran owned businesses.
Mamon Powers, of Powers and Sons Construction Co., an African-American owned firm, said the Eskenazi project could help with revitalization.
“Projects of this size aren’t available in this area very often, so we are glad to be a part of it,” Powers said. “Looking at the larger picture, making an effort to include more minority businesses in this project should stimulate economic development in our community.”
Barbara Holder, diversity manager for the Eskenazi building project, said the hospital’s management and construction teams worked “very aggressively” to insure that all segments of the community would be involved in developing a new hospital.
“At the beginning of the project we already had a diversity plan that we put into effect,” Holder said.
She noted that a key part of the plan involved Eskenazi and city officials hosting 103 outreach workshops in venues across the city to discuss contract opportunities with representatives of minority, women and veteran owned businesses.
Eskenazi made a variety of packages available for businesses to bid on, ranging from aspects of consulting such as architecture, to work involving construction of the hospital, parking garage, utilities and the administrative office building.
“We want the make up of the new hospital and its construction to actually reflect the people of the community,” Holder added.
State Rep. Gregory Porter, D-Indianapolis, noted how appreciative Eskenazi has been of the community since November, 2009, when 85 percent of Marion County voters endorsed a $600 million bond issue in a referendum to help fund a new facility to replace Eskenazi’s aging hospital.
“When we asked the people to give us the opportunity to construct the hospital, our commitment was that we would in turn make sure opportunities were available that would be helpful to the community,” said Porter, who is also vice president of external affairs for the Health and Hospital Corp. “This is our (the community’s) hospital, and we want everyone to know they can have a role in taking it to the next level.”
Gutwein said Eskenazi’s commitment to diversity reflects the values it has had since its early days, first as General Hospital then as Wishard.
“We were the first hospital to admit African-American patients, and the first to train and hire African-American physicians and nurses,” Gutwein said. “This goes back to the very core of the reason why we are here. This has always been a hospital that has been available to everyone, regardless of culture, background or income.”
