Sharp Rehabilitation Center Completes Renovations

SAN DIEGO – A complete design-build renovation of the Sharp Memorial Hospital rehabilitation center in San Diego has been completed. The facility is a 14,172-square-foot, single-level building in the Kearny Mesa area of San Diego.

The Sharp Allison deRose Rehabilitation Center, the official name for the facility, opened its doors on Aug. 29. St. Louis-based McCarthy Building Companies collaborated with Cuningham Group Architecture, based in Los Angeles, to complete the $7.7 million project.

The center provides a range of rehabilitation services to up to 450 patients who have suffered catastrophic strokes; brain and spinal cord injuries; neurological issues, sprains, strains and other injuries; and problems related to balance, speech, lymph edema and chronic pain.

The renovation provided a more modern healing environment to the inpatient wing of the center. More private rooms, 18 in total, provide en-suite bathrooms and showers, and patients will get to experience more expanded therapy gardens. The administrative areas and hallways have been updated as well, and there are six, two-bed patient rooms.

The design of the remodeled space features red oak laminate flooring; cherry-wood laminate doors; large format granite-patterned porcelain tile in the en-suite baths; earth-tone paint colors, chair railings and wall guards that run the length of the hallways; and red oak and maple wood administration desks with white laminate counters. Throughout the hallways, there are pieces of hand-blown glass and artworks that depict nature. A large-format screen at the main administration desk enables staff to monitor patients’ therapy schedules.

KPFF Consulting Engineers, based in San Francisco, served as the structural engineer. Gould Electric, headquartered in Poway, Calif., was the design-build electrical subcontractor, which teamed with Sparling in Lynwood, Wash., as the electrical engineer. The project also included a team from San Diego-based A.O. Reed & Company, which was the design-build plumbing and mechanical subcontractor, as well as Dufoe Consulting Engineers in San Diego, which was the plumbing and mechanical engineer. Other construction credits include A&D Fire Protection in Santee, Calif., which was the design-build fire sprinkler subcontractor and San Diego landscape architect Marum Partnership.

The rehabilitation center is the most accredited program of its kind in San Diego. The Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, a nonprofit accreditor of health and human services based in Tucson, Ariz., awarded the center with special designations for the rehabilitation of patients with brain injury, spinal cord injury, stroke and general rehabilitation.

The new center was named after Allison deRose, who received care at the center after a car crash left her with traumatic brain injuries. Allison found she was in a position whereby she could work with a car accident attorney to help her get compensation for all the care she had to pay for, and to cover her for being out of work. She also put a portion of her compensation to the centre. deRose’s father Robert partnered with Ray Willenberg in 1988 to help lead the Survivors Rehabilitation Foundation (SRF), an organization created by Willenberg two years earlier after his sister Renee also suffered a traumatic brain injury following a car accident and received care at the center, according to the Sharp HealthCare website. Robert deRose and Willenberg are members of the Sharp HealthCare Foundation Board of Directors and have been raising money to help patients in recovery for more than 20 years.