Kaiser Permanente of Hayward is expected to relocate to a new building in San Leandro during summer next year due to concerns for earthquake safety and a commitment to build green facilities.

Over 50 years old, the current Kaiser building in Hayward was built in the 1960’s. According to California’s Hospital Seismic Safety Law, the building is out of code.

“New Earthquake standards required for hospitals are taking effect,” said Kaiser Permanente coordinator, Melonee Dean. “We cannot retrofit a working hospital full of patients. Kaiser Permanente is committed to building green facilities to replace those that are outdated.”

Dean has spent over fifteen years in the Kaiser Hayward building and has noticed the differences over the years. She says her team organized the move that pertained to them which allowed their section to be better and more beneficial to their patients.  “The new hospital and medical offices will be state of the art and energy efficient,” said Dean.

Construction of the new hospital began in 2010 off of Marina Boulevard just West of Interstate 880. Approval for the construction came from the General Plan Amendment and Development Agreement for Phase 1 of the Kaiser Permanente San Leandro Medical Center/Mixed-Use Retail Development, according to the San Leandro city’s website.  The construction itself has employed at least 3,000 people for the basic construction in the city of San Leandro, according to the city website.

“[This] should be good because of the possibilities of more jobs,” said San Leandro resident Lisa Lautaimi. “Along with becoming more convenient for the residents that get serviced there.”

Hayward resident Esther Stockard feels that the move is a big change

“Also a very big advancement to Kaiser by offering more methods to their patients,” she said.

In comparison some patients and employees like nurses of Kaiser think differently.  An article from San Leandro Patch speaks out stating, “Although the San Leandro center will deliver babies and offer neonatal intensive care, it will not provide hospital care to older youth.”

Kaiser main building is catering to the patients yes, but not to all ages. The Patch article mentions Oakland Kaiser nurse Kathy Donohough is opposed to the idea of moving because the move does not cater to all ages in need of care.

“Aside from distance, several other factors should also be considered like possible traffic, parents taking more time off from work and having to find child care for other children who they can’t bring with them,” Donohough told the Patch.

In the same sense, Michael Henneberry, a parent from Alameda, within the same article San Leandro Patch, asserts his concerns saying, “Changing pediatricians is a big concern. All three of my young children were born at the Hayward hospital and have grown to love it. Our doctors are here so we don’t want to move.”

The San Leandro City website talks about the new plans of Kaiser. When the new building is finalized it will stand as a ‘green’ facility that is designed to use less energy and water.  The website claims that 97 percent of all materials used within the site was recycled.  Over 98,000 redirecting tons of construction waste material from the landfill. The site was also able to salvage the old concrete paving for soil stabilization, and filling pavement base.

Kaiser will be standing as a six-story 425,000-square-foot hospital. The equipment entails 264 acute care beds – all private rooms – 10 operating rooms, 24-hour emergency services with 40 treatment rooms and a newborn intensive care nursery.

The other building, will hold the medical offices containing 116 offices for primary care along with specialty physicians, an outpatient procedure suite with six rooms, a pharmacy, a laboratory and radiology services claims city of San Leandro’s website.