MIAMI—Skanska USA has signed an initial contract for $90 million (and the total project cost is expected to be $300 million upon completion) for the renovation and expansion of one of the emergency departments at Jackson Health System –one of the country’s leading and largest public health systems, located in Miami, Fla. The healthcare renovation and expansion will encompass the demolition of two buildings to create additional space as part of the planned expansion, which will triple the size of the healthcare system’s flagship emergency department at Jackson Memorial Hospital

Situated in the heart of the Miami Health District, the nonprofit academic medical hospital, Jackson Memorial receives an average of 120,000 emergency department patient visits annually. Designed by the award-winning global architecture firm HKS, the approximately 130,000-square-foot expansion in the busiest emergency department within Miami-Dade County will include 207 new rooms, inclusive of 50 observation rooms and seven patient rooms.

“As a leader in healthcare construction in Florida, Skanska has built a strong partnership with Jackson delivering several healthcare construction projects in the past. This project will be critical to serving the growing healthcare needs of the Miami community,” said Bob Kramer, Vice President and Account Manager for Skanska’s Florida building operations. “We hope the emergency department renovation and expansion will have a lasting impact in helping to provide medical services to residents and visitors who rely on Jackson Health for life-saving procedures and world-class health care.”

The construction work will also encompass the relocation and installation of underground utilities to support the larger medical building. The Jackson project will enable the expanding health system to triage patients faster and reduce wait times to better serve its growing patient population in South Florida. The new emergency department expansion is expected to be delivered in 2025, while the renovation to the existing emergency department totaling about 45,000 square feet will be completed in 2027.

With a trajectory building transformative and innovative healthcare projects across Florida, Skanska also delivered the Jackson Project D – Floor Modernizations project at Jackson in 2019. Additionally, the construction company previously completed the state-of-the-art medical facility Orlando Health Jewett Orthopedic Institute in Downtown Orlando; the expansion and renovation of the Gulf Coast Medical Center in Fort Myers; and the renovation of the Salah Foundation Children’s Hospital at Broward Health.

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HOLLYWOOD, Fla.—Memorial Regional Hospital, the flagship facility of Memorial Healthcare System, is investing $88 million to upgrade its infrastructure. Construction has begun at the Hollywood-based hospital and will include an all-new floor for its Memorial Family Birthplace, and significant upgrades to the Level I Trauma Center and Emergency Room.

Since its opening as a one-story, 100-bed Memorial Hospital in 1953, to one of the largest hospitals in the state with 863 beds and dozens of specialties, the hospital has continuously expanded its services and spaces to meet the demands of a growing community. This investment affirms Memorial’s commitment to remaining a leader in healthcare, continually adapting and evolving to optimize positive outcomes and the patient experience.

“With a visionary approach, Memorial Regional Hospital aims to enhance the quality of care and ensure the best possible experience for our patients and their families,” said Peter Powers, CEO, Memorial Regional Hospital. “This investment reflects the hospital’s commitment to remaining at the forefront of medical advancements and reflects our unwavering dedication the community we serve.”

With more babies born at Memorial Regional Hospital than any other facility in Broward County, more than 75% of the investment ($68 million) has been allocated to redesigning the Family Birthplace to create a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to delivering exceptional maternity care.

This labor of love is underway with expected completion in late 2024. Already a destination center for high-risk pregnancies, with specialized programs for high-risk obstetrics, maternal-fetal medicine, a Placenta Accreta Spectrum Program, and Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital’s Level IV Wasie NICU, the enhanced Family Birthplace will offer expanded, private new rooms and specialty rooms, family lounge, cutting-edge technology, and a comprehensive range of services to support expecting mothers and newborns.

The redesigned fourth floor (59,150 sq. ft.) will include:

• All private rooms
• 54 Postpartum rooms, 18 Antepartum rooms
• Partner & Family lounge
• Specialty rooms for meditation and Kosher dietary needs
• Classroom for new parent classes
• Simulation lab to offer specialized training to promote quality and safety

“We want to give expectant parents a modern and safe place to deliver with all the comforts to call this their baby’s first home. The legacy and commitment of Memorial Regional Hospital remains evident as we continue to make significant upgrades to our all-new fourth floor,” shared Jane McCarthy, Director of Nursing.

Not stopping there, Memorial Regional Hospital is committed to being at the forefront of emergency medical services in South Florida, and is investing $20 million to upgrade its Level 1 Trauma Center and Emergency Room. By upgrading and expanding the trauma center, which treats pediatric and adult patients who are critically wounded or suffer a traumatic injury, the hospital is enhancing its capacity to handle the most critical cases and mass casualty situations efficiently and effectively.

With nearly 94,000 visits in 2022, the hospital’s ER is the second largest in the state. Due to the high volume of patients in this area, construction is happening in numerous phases and is expected to be completed in early 2025.

The improvements include:

• Three redesigned trauma bays with built-in redundancy to accommodate two patients per room if necessary
• Enlarged resuscitation room that could serve as a fourth trauma bay if needed
• Emergency room aesthetic upgrades

In addition to the Family Birthplace, Level I Trauma Center, and Emergency Room, Memorial features a wide range of treatments and technologies, including: Medical and Surgical Services, Memorial Cardiac and Vascular Institute with an award-winning ECMO program, Memorial Cancer Institute, Memorial Neuroscience Institute, and Comprehensive Stroke Center, Memorial Transplant Institute, offering kidney, heart and pancreas transplants and Behavioral Health Services.

The general contractor is Turner Construction for both projects; HKS is the architect for Family Birthplace; and Harvard Jolly is the architect for the ER/trauma renovations.

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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.—Hammes Healthcare, a leading provider of consulting and project management services, broke ground on the new Orthopedic Health & Performance Center for Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, on September 27.

Hammes is servings as owner’s representative for the new 117,000-square-foot orthopedic facility that will provide advanced orthopedic care, an ambulatory surgery center, physician and occupational therapy, performance training spaces, and orthopedic urgent care. The Orthopedic Health & Performance Center is expected to open in 2024.

Hammes is also serving as the owner’s representative for Spectrum Health’s new 240,000-square-foot ambulatory care building in Grand Rapids, which broke ground in July.

“We believe our ability to concurrently manage multiple, large-scale projects for health systems is one of our key strengths,” said Nancy Connolly, President of Hammes Healthcare. “We look forward to successfully delivering these strategic projects for Spectrum Health.”

The architect on the project is HKS; Whiting-Turner is the construction manager.

Hammes Healthcare is a national consulting firm that provides real estate and market strategy, facility planning, project management and development services to the healthcare industry.

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RALEIGH, N.C.—Global design company HKS is expanding in North Carolina with the opening of an office in Raleigh.

A leader among international architecture and design firms, HKS is known for its ability to create and deliver environments of distinction through award-winning architecture, planning, interior design, research and commitment to ESG (environmental, social and governance). Since 1981, HKS has been a part of designing more than 200 North Carolina-based projects including Cone Health, Wake Forest Baptist Health, Duke Health, JW Charlotte, American Tobacco Master Plan, Smoky Hollow and Biltmore in Asheville.

“We have been active in the Research Triangle for many years,” said Dan Noble, President and CEO of HKS. “Our new office in Raleigh will allow us to expand our offerings to our existing clients, develop new relationships with clients and partners and deepen our commitment to the community. Our new office in Raleigh will allow us to expand our offerings to our existing clients, develop new relationships with clients and partners and deepen our commitment to the community.”

HKS has long been active in the Raleigh area, offering a local portal to a global network of award-winning designers. The new office – the firm’s 26th — will focus on Commercial/Mixed-Use, Life Sciences, Education and Health projects. The Raleigh office will be led by North Carolina native Lynn Dunn, along with a staff of nine.

Dunn attended North Carolina State University and believes that great design begins locally by achieving clients’ visions through a reflection of their brand, mission and purpose.

“I am excited for the opportunity to open and lead the Raleigh studio for HKS, bringing national and global design perspectives to the region that I call home,” said Dunn, a Principal at HKS. “Building on the tremendous portfolio of work in the Carolinas over the past three decades, HKS will continue to make an impact on businesses and the local community through the creation of high-performance environments that support physical and mental health. The unprecedented and stimulating growth we are seeing in the region needs leadership, innovation and social and cultural consciousness.”

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FORT MYERS, Fla.—Skanska, a leading construction and development firm, has announced the completion of the $242 million renovation and expansion of Lee Health’s Gulf Coast Medical Center in Fort Myers. The main portion of the project consisted of a three-floor vertical expansion that added 216 patient rooms on top of an existing bed tower and a new three-story tower with 52 intensive care unit rooms, a 16-bay dialysis suite, and three new endoscopy and bronchoscopy procedure rooms to better serve the growing population in Southwest Florida.

Skanska completed the project in a joint venture with Gates Construction and the design was led by architecture firm HKS, Inc. The project comprised a 365,700-square-foot expansion and a renovation of 48,500 square feet of healthcare space. As part of the first phase, a 1,300-space parking garage was built to accommodate the hospital’s growth and provide additional parking for the medical staff, patients, and visitors.

“Skanska is proud to have partnered with Lee Health to deliver this extensive hospital expansion and renovation that will help meet the growing healthcare needs in the Southwest Florida community,” said Michael C. Brown, executive vice president and general manager of Skanska USA’s building operations in Florida. “As a leader in healthcare construction in Florida, Skanska’s team worked carefully and diligently to build these innovative hospital facilities while the surrounding medical campus remained open to serve patients.”

To support the increased bed capacity of the Gulf Coast Medical Center campus, expansions and renovations were completed in the clinical laboratory spaces, pharmacy department, food services, public dining space, back-of-the-house services, and the central energy plant. The project also doubled the size of the radiology and emergency departments, adding a new MRI, seven ultrasound rooms, 27 regular and airborne isolation exam rooms, four state-of-the-art trauma bays, two X-ray rooms, two CT rooms, and a second helipad. The construction efforts allowed the hospital to increase its overall bed capacity from 356 to 624. The project was fully completed in late 2021 with a total of 43 project phases delivered.

Currently, Skanska has more than a dozen active construction projects across Florida, including the University of Miami’s Frost Institute of Chemistry and Molecular Science, Orlando Health Jewett Orthopedic Institute in downtown Orlando and the University of South Florida’s Research Park Mixed Use Lab & Office project in Tampa.

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With the help of Dallas-based HKS Inc. as the lead architectural firm, as well as Self-Tucker Architects and Archimania, both of Memphis, the construction of the eight-story tower began in November 2016, and is currently being erected on top of the standing emergency department that Turner construction built in 2014. The notable design features reflect the goal of the medical facility earning its LEED Gold certification as well as attracting top-ranking medical professionals from all over the globe.

According to Kyle Reeves, Turner project executive for the tower, the team selected a unitized curtain wall glass system that will be pre-assembled off site and erected quicker than a stick built system in order to meet the insistent schedule. The curtain wall includes a dynamic glass system, which changes shade in response to sunlight to help with energy efficiency. The construction also includes two green roof areas, which create a calmer healing environment to improve patient outcomes.

“The use of glass, cast stone and metal panels provides a new identity for the campus entrance while also providing a destination that will attract the world’s top medical professionals,” said Reeves. “The use of dynamic glass throughout the entire project adds a level a comfort for patients and family. A new concourse on level three will be the main pedestrian spine that connects the existing hospital to the new expansion. The main public elevator lobby will have glass walls on two sides with enhanced lighting. Its glass walls rise above the roof level, forming a symbolic beacon that reinforces the faith-based focus of Methodist University Hospital.”

The new tower is expected to elevate patient care for Memphis and the Mid-South. The tower will allow for the consolidation of the hospital’s transplant services into a two-floor inpatient/outpatient comprehensive transplant institute. It will also connect the oncology and outpatient care to create a new cancer center. The expansion allows for a 36 percent increase in ICU capacity and a 20 percent increase in the hospital’s operating room capacity.

“The new facility will be one of the most advanced patient- and family-centered state-of-the-art tertiary care facilities in the Mid-South region,” said Reeves. “This represents a major investment to healthcare in the Midtown Memphis community and innovative spaces that will elevate the care provided to the Mid-South region for generations to come. This new facility will become one of the most advanced patient- and family-centered, state-of-the-art tertiary care facilities in the Mid-South region. This master plan campus improvement will also push MUH further towards its goal of being one of the top academic hospitals in the country.”

The construction of this tower also implements an “integrated project delivery” system (IPD).

“Renovating a space while it remains fully operational can pose a number of challenges. The most frequently cited challenge is that construction often takes longer than it would if the space did not need to remain fully functioning during construction. However, thanks to new collaborative delivery methods like Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), we’re able to mitigate this problem,” said  Reeves.

According to Reeves, IPD focuses on delivering value, eliminating waste and continuously improving. It encourages collaboration, shared risk and accountability between the owner, builder and architect. The IPD team, bound under one contract, often includes the owner, builder and architect, but can also include engineers, large subcontractors and suppliers.

The team establishes a target budget early in the project and outlines clear goals to ensure the project aligns well with the owner’s objectives. With all major parties involved from day one, the system fosters effective communication and decision-making. The architect, builder and sometimes engineer are contractually obligated to work together for the benefit of the project. This level of buy-in means the entire team is focused on adding value to help build a better quality, lower risk and faster project.

The IPD team spends a significant amount of time planning on the front end, so the design and building phases essentially morph into one continuous phase. And because construction can begin before design is completed, we are able to radically improve schedule performance, eliminate costly change orders and therefore reduce the chance of any schedule slips or delays. The collaborative nature of IPD allows us to identify and fix any potential problem areas before they affect the flow of work.

Because of IDP, the market will no longer tolerate mediocrity when it comes to project performance — including cost and schedule overruns, inefficient staffing models and workflow patterns, and facilities that are difficult and expensive to maintain and operate. The Integrated Project Delivery approach ensures that the team maximizes efficiency through all phases, from schematic design through to completion. Ultimately, it guarantees that the builder and designer are focused on adding value, building the project with higher quality, lower risk and at a faster speed.

The facility also includes new technology and electronic systems with linear accelerators, the latest models of MRIs and other state-of-the-art imaging and radiology equipment. This also includes modernized pharmacy, laboratories, dialysis and interventional radiology areas.

According to a statement, Michael Ugwueke, president and CEO of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare expressed, “We are committed to the Midtown Medical District, and we are energized by our quest to put patients first in everything we do — from patient access, to patient experience to patient care, MLH is committed to providing high quality care to every patient who enters our doors.”

Project completion is expected for spring of 2019.

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