The state Senate approved the budget plan on Friday, July 24 and the state Assembly passed its version earlier in the week.

One of the aspects of the budget will be continuing a policy of furloughing most state workers three Fridays a month.

This, unfortunately, will cause delays for OVDH as the state agency that oversees hospital construction has cut its workweek.

Late last year, the Oak Valley Hospital District board of directors voted to move forward on a $69 million plan to begin construction of the new hospital. The state agency, the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD), acts as building inspectors of sorts, having to approve and review various construction phases as they occur.

With shortened workweeks, OVHD officials expect construction to be impacted as inspection visits from OSHPD are delayed.

The new hospital building will consist of 123,000 square feet, according to district officials. The first floor will consist of a 12 space emergency room, two operating rooms, five post-anesthesia beds, two GI procedure rooms, seven out-patient surgical prep and recovery rooms, CT and MRI imaging, and the laboratory.

The current hospital, which will retain 35 hospital beds for overnight patients, and the first floor of the new hospital — only seven feet apart in some locations — will be connected by newly planned corridors.

Ironically, it was OSHPD that prevented the district from beginning construction years ago in 2004 — when voters approved a bond for $38 million to finance construction of the new hospital — by delaying review of the hospital’s construction plan.

Oak Valley also had a 20-month delay in the construction of their central utility plant because of delays in plan approval by OSPHD, according to John Friel, chief executive officer of OVHD.

“The state had staffing problems, and they wouldn’t subcontract out the plan review process,” Friel said in an earlier interview.

Friel said the delays in OSHPD approving hospital construction plans were also caused by other hospitals attempting to update their own facilities.

Susan Mendieta, a spokesperson for OVHD, said the furloughed OSPHD inspectors are affecting the hospital’s construction schedule.

“The construction schedule is being redesigned,” she said. “The furloughs are having an effect on us.”

Mendieta said Acme Construction of Modesto, the contractor building the hospital, is in the process of examining the construction timetable.

“We’re expecting some changes; what those changes are, we don’t know.”