Colorado State University Archives - HCO News https://hconews.com/tag/colorado_state_university/ Healthcare Construction & Operations Fri, 09 Dec 2016 00:21:56 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.0.9 https://hconews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/cropped-HCO-News-Logo-32x32.png Colorado State University Archives - HCO News https://hconews.com/tag/colorado_state_university/ 32 32 Waynesboro Hospital Undergoing Four-Phase Renovation Project https://hconews.com/2016/08/17/waynesboro-hospital-undergoing-four-phase-renovation-project/ Wed, 17 Aug 2016 00:32:37 +0000 WAYNESBORO, Pa. — Waynesboro Hospital has started work on a $6 million expansion project that will ensure patients receive the highest quality of care in an updated facility.

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WAYNESBORO, Pa. — Waynesboro Hospital has started work on a $6 million expansion project that will ensure patients receive the highest quality of care in an updated facility.

Planning for the project began in 2015, but a groundbreaking ceremony took place the first week of August. Renovations are expected to be complete in the next 14 to 18 months.

Renovations will add a number of aesthetic features designed to enhance the quality of service provided by the hospital as well as the quality of care the hospital can provide.

“The overarching goal of this renovation project is to offer an even better experience for patients while they are in our care,” said Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Melissa Dubrow in a statement.

Hospital officials said the four-phase project will update the critical care and medical surgical units as well as operating rooms.

The renovation will improve the basic design of the hospital by improving storage facilities, lighting fixtures, hospital design and security systems.

Updates to the critical care unit include the closure of existing windows between some rooms, which will reduce noise and provide more privacy for patients. Ceiling lifts will also be installed in designated rooms. This will improve patient safety when the patient is being transported from bed to wheelchair.

The nurses’ station in the critical care unit will also be updated to provide a larger field of vision into patient rooms. This will help nurses ensure that all patients are safe and their needs are met.

In addition, 16 patient rooms in the medical surgical unit will receive upgrades to lighting and plumbing fixtures. One major update is the installation of hand sinks located just inside each room. This helps maximize infection control procedures already in place at the hospital.

Additionally, two nurses’ stations located in the medical surgical unit will be consolidated into one centrally located station.

Summit Health President and Chief Executive Officer Pat O’Donnell said in a statement that the project reaffirms the organization’s commitment to providing high-quality, accessible health care to community members in the Waynesboro area. Waynesboro Hospital is an affiliate of Summit Health.

“We care about the health and well-being of those living in and around Waynesboro,” O’Donnell said in a statement. “Waynesboro Hospital isn’t just a community hospital; it’s an award-winning hospital staffed by skilled clinical team members and providers who are neighbors to the patients served. We are invested in continuing to offer great care to the Waynesboro community.”

The expansion, designed by GS Architects based in Havertown, Pa., will add 230,262 square feet to the hospital. The medical surgical unit will be expanded to 17,744 square feet and the intensive care unit (ICU) will be expanded to 5,618 square feet.

 

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Christiana Care Health Selects Skanska for $178 Million Project https://hconews.com/2016/08/17/christiana-care-health-selects-skanska-178-million-project/ Wed, 17 Aug 2016 00:30:08 +0000 NEWARK, Del. — Christiana Care Health System announced that the multi-national firm Skanska, headquartered in Sweden, was awarded a $178 million contract to build the new Women and Children’s Health Building at the Christiana Hospital Campus in south Newark.

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NEWARK, Del. — On Aug. 4, Christiana Care Health System announced that the multi-national firm Skanska, headquartered in Sweden, was awarded a $178 million contract to build the new Women and Children’s Health Building at the Christiana Hospital Campus in south Newark.

The project will add 388,00 square feet to the Christiana Hospital Campus and will replace the neonatal intensive care unit and expand outpatient units. Since the hospital is nationally known for its neonatal program, the added space will be a welcomed and needed addition. Last year, more than 6,450 babies were born at Christiana Hospital — an average of more than 17 births each day — making Christiana Hospital one of the busiest maternity centers on the East Coast.

“This important investment in our community will advance the most innovative, high-quality, comprehensive specialty care for women, children and babies,” said Janice E. Nevin, M.D., MPH, president and chief executive officer of Christiana Care Health System, in a statement. “These improvements will enable Christiana Care to provide an exceptional experience with the goal of optimal health for the women and children we serve.”

The project will also include a new lab, pharmacy and a four-story parking garage. The new garage — which Skanska was awarded last year — will sit on the site of the current main parking lot and will feature a covered walkway that protects hospital-goers all the way to the entrance. It will use energy-efficient LED lighting to make walkways more visible and safer. Christiana Care’s shuttles will have enough space to pull directly into the garage to drop off and pick up passengers.

Inside the hospital, the expansion will also include dietary and logistical support services, according to Delaware Business Now. In addition, it will feature private rooms with sleep-in space for families who are spending nights in the hospital and a new labor lounge complete with the most innovative technology. The new building will also offer an expanded triage area, a separate admitting space and a separate discharge area.

During the construction project, the Christiana Hospital Campus will remain fully operational and the project is expected to be complete in January 2020.

 

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New Neuro ICU Provides State-of-the-Art Services https://hconews.com/2016/01/27/new-neuro-icu-provides-state-the-art-services/ DALLAS — Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas opened a new state-of-the-art Neuro ICU, which will replace the old and outdated facility. The previous Neuro ICU provided great care to the patients, but was not the greatest healing environment. The ICU was very congested with equipment, doctors, nurses, other medical professionals and loved ones, said Christiana Hall, MD, medical director, Neuroscience ICU at Parkland and associate professor of Neurology, Neurotherapeutics and Neurosurgery at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, in a statement.

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DALLAS — Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas opened a new state-of-the-art Neuro ICU, which will replace the old and outdated facility. The previous Neuro ICU provided great care to the patients, but was not the greatest healing environment. The ICU was very congested with equipment, doctors, nurses, other medical professionals and loved ones, said Christiana Hall, MD, medical director, Neuroscience ICU at Parkland and associate professor of Neurology, Neurotherapeutics and Neurosurgery at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, in a statement.

The new Neuro ICU provides a family-friendly environment that is a perfect atmosphere for the patient’s healing process. “In the new Neuro ICU, every patient has a private room, nursing is decentralized, care teams have ample work space and the overall environment is serene, family-friendly and patient-focused,” said Kelly Heathman, RN, director of nursing, neuroscience at the hospital, in a statement.

The new ICU design was built using an evidence-based design and includes advanced technology features such as single-patient rooms with private bathrooms, including a shower and a family area with a sleeper sofa so the family is able to be involved in the patient care. The rooms also feature a ceiling-mounted boom that is designed to specifications from the Neuro ICU team. The equipment can be easily moved out of the way to facilitate care such as placing ventricular drains, according to a statement. The department also contains a dedicated CT scanner that will minimize transportation time and the distance to imaging services, which is meant to protect the patient’s safety. Each room will be fit with state-of-the-art “smart” rooms and “smart” beds that will be able to weigh the patients and even alert staff when a patient attempts to get out of bed. The addition of state-of-the-art technology allows the physicians to provide more efficient care for their patients.

Open work areas will facilitate staff interactions across the neuroscience disciplines, which will enhance patient care and safety. The staff will also now be equipped with special phones that will allow for secure texting of protected health information, eliminating the need for paging and callback and saving critical time with patients, according to a statement. Many of the new features at the Parkland Memorial Hospital Neuro ICU are included to be able to improve function and make the facility a more comfortable and family-friendly environment for patients.

“The appreciation we get from patients and families is very heartening. It’s one of the reasons many of us choose to practice at Parkland. Our patients make us grow, and we are grateful for it,” said Michael Rubin, MD, Neuro-Intensivist at Parkland and assistant professor of neurology and neurotherapeutics at UT Southwestern, in a statement.
 

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Q&A: The Benefits of Wall Protection https://hconews.com/2015/08/12/q-the-benefits-wall-protection/ WILMINGTON, Del. — To meet increasing health care demands and growing patient needs, Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children expanded its Wilmington campus.

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WILMINGTON, Del. — To meet increasing health care demands and growing patient needs, Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children expanded its Wilmington campus. Completed in late 2014, the 557,000-square-foot expansion included new family-centered patient rooms, enhanced family amenities, collaborative team spaces and a new emergency department with 44 exam rooms.

Houston-based FKP Architects served as the project’s designer and collaborated with Construction Specialties, headquartered in Lebanon, N.J., to develop decorative wall protection panels and artwork to improve the interior spaces. Construction Specialties has provided durable, functional interior wall protection systems for health care facilities for nearly 50 years. The company’s Acrovyn by Design line, a digitally printed product released just months before the start of the hospital expansion product, was featured throughout the patient-occupied areas.

Healthcare Construction + Operations News spoke with Amy DeVore, business development manager for Construction Specialties, about how these adaptable panels are helping to boost morale and improve patient health.

Q: Why is wall protection important for health care facilities?

DeVore: Hospitals receive an extensive amount of traffic. Between patients, visitors, staff, and medical equipment, food carts and cleaning equipment, the walls face heavy abuse on a daily basis. Acrovyn wall protection is not only a functional way to protect the walls in highly traversed areas, but it also supports the facilities’ infection control efforts because it’s easy to clean. Facility maintenance workers love that it offers protection for a long-term investment so they don’t often have to repair walls in a patient-populated atmosphere. Another important reason is that Acrovyn meets Class A fire characteristics.

Q: Can interior design impact patient recovery or morale?

DeVore: Health care in general really has become patient centered. Studies have shown that the patient experience can impact their recovery time; so providing well-designed facilities is definitely helping. It’s why we’re seeing natural light, gardens and play areas incorporated into modern health care design. Health care visits are generally very stressful, so providing a welcoming environment can help patients and visitors feel comfortable which in turn helps to reduce their anxiety.

The selection of calming imagery helps to provide a comfortable, healing environment. Color and fun can be added to make the space more inviting, especially in pediatric areas. With Acrovyn by Design, nearly any photo, color, message, etc., can be used to transform health care environments with feature walls and even full wall murals for a unique creation. The Acrovyn sheet acts as a protective shield not only for the images, but also the walls. So, there are also benefits for the maintenance and cleaning staff when digital wall protection is utilized. Acrovyn by Design also doesn’t off-gas after installation, which can also help patient recovery by eliminating potential sensory triggers.

Q: How can wall protection systems cater specifically to children and teenage patients?

DeVore: Children like seeing children’s artwork, and they can relate to their own artwork. At Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, an art contest was held for local young people. The selected pieces were actually reproduced on Acrovyn by Design. Of course, pediatrics typically range from newborns up to 18 year olds. Facility designers can develop an ideal age-appropriate environment by relying on the experts and professionals who know how to keep colors and age-range broad.

Q: How was the Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children project a success?

DeVore: It wasn’t a typical corridor application for wall protection. The children’s artwork was actually installed on patient room doors to create movement and add a little extra ambiance to the facility. The architect and contractor worked well with our internal staff establishing a comfortable, open dialogue. This customer partnership allowed us to be successful as we worked through the final development of the Acrovyn by Design line. We know the facility was very pleased with the outcome.

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Iowa Children’s Hospital Construction on Schedule https://hconews.com/2015/03/16/iowa-children-s-hospital-construction-on-schedule/ IOWA CITY, Iowa — University of Iowa (UI) officials announced earlier this month that the $292 million UI Children’s Hospital remains on track for a late summer 2016 opening, despite challenging winter weather and a dearth of skilled laborers in the area. Word on whether or not the project will be completed under budget will become available later this month.

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IOWA CITY, Iowa — University of Iowa (UI) officials announced earlier this month that the $292 million UI Children’s Hospital remains on track for a late summer 2016 opening, despite challenging winter weather and a dearth of skilled laborers in the area. Word on whether or not the project will be completed under budget will become available later this month.

Scott Turner, executive director of the UI Children’s Hospital, told the state’s Board of Regents recently that the 14-story project (two floors below ground, 14 above) has progressed from design into its transitional and operational phase, according to the Iowa Press-Citizen. The hospital is also in the process of identifying which staff will be moving into the new facility from the existing hospital, as well as how many new employees — from nurses to maintenance staff — the 134-bed hospital will require.

Portions of the hospital’s ground through sixth floors will align with those of existing buildings. Perfecting this alignment required additional time and expense during the design process to ensure “seamless transitions” between sensitive areas such as the neo-natal intensive care unit and operating rooms, Turner told the Iowa Press-Citizen.

The hospital, which was carefully designed to promote healing, offers an abundance of natural light introduced via large windows in patient-occupied areas, as well as strategically positioned light wells. Massive ground floor-to-ceiling windows are also included in the design, illuminating a café, recreation area and library. Those on the upper floors will even be able to enjoy a view into the nearby Kinnick Stadium, home to the university’s football team, the Hawkeyes. Work on the facility’s interior will likely begin next month after the building’s exterior is sealed.

Several features were also integrated to ensure both physical and environmental safety for users. For example, despite the fact that the community lies in an area that regularly experiences tornadoes, the design ensures that patients will remain safe in the event of severe weather thanks to windows that can withstand considerable force. Additionally, the hospital will include a special, environmentally secure unit for separating contagious patients from the rest of the population.

Construction on the UI Children’s Hospital, which will include 480,000 square feet of new construction and a more than 56,000-square-foot renovation, began in fall 2012. The $292 million hospital is being funding through a combination of bonds, patient revenue and private gifts.

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Healthy Hospitals Bring the Outdoors Inside https://hconews.com/2014/03/06/healthy-hospitals-bring-the-outdoors-inside/ WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. — For many hospitals and clinics, reducing recovery times, decreasing stress and cultivating happier employees tops the institutional wish list.

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WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. — For many hospitals and clinics, reducing recovery times, decreasing stress and cultivating happier employees tops the institutional wish list. However, rather than hiring consultants and instituting wellness programs, many facilities are opting for a more natural approach.

Indoor healing or therapeutic gardens are now blooming in hospitals, outpatient clinics, substance abuse facilities and hospice settings across the country. Where health care providers once relied on potted plants and landscaped entryways, many are now dedicating interiors to lush, living oases, and seeing some serious benefits.

Roger Ulrich, now an environmental psychologist at Texas A&M University, was one of the first to examine how integrating nature into health care settings could positively impact patients. Ulrich specifically studied patients recovering from gall bladder surgery. The only distinct difference in their treatment and recovery was the view from their hospital room. Ulrich found that patients who enjoyed a view of nature typically required less pain medication, experienced fewer complications and healed a full day faster than their counterparts who faced brick walls.

In 2008, researchers at Kansas State University published similar findings. They found that patients recovering from appendectomies in rooms containing plants and flowers required significantly fewer postoperative analgesics, and had more positive physiological responses when compared to patients in the flora-free control group.

Shane Pliska, president of the interior landscape design firm Planterra, enthusiastically supports these findings. Pliska and the Planterra team have completed multiple garden installations in health care facilities across the country, and believe their work has an important impact on physical and psychological health.

“We need plants,” Pliska said. “People are stressed in medical facilities, whether it’s because of their own illness or a loved one’s [illness]. When they have nature in sight, when there are plants in those spaces, it makes people feel more comfortable. It relates to the human element of what we’re doing.”

In 2012, Scientific American magazine also noted the increased use of healing gardens in hospitals and clinics, referencing design standards developed by Susan Rodiek, also of Texas A&M. According to Rodiek, lush, layered and diverse garden installations with a minimum of concrete interruptions are most conducive to healing and engagement. The gardens should also stimulate multiple senses, be easily accessible and feature realistic sculptures as opposed to abstract images.

These living green spaces can be integrated into nearly any hospital or clinical setting. Many facilities concentrate healing gardens in atriums or entryways; however seating areas, collaborative spaces and corridors can also serve as ideal venues for containerized installations. According to Pliska, Planterra designers have even converted defunct interior fountains into lush gardens.

Living installations are also a safe option for sterile environments. Planterra and other interior garden designers often use a sub-irrigation system and sterilized growing media as opposed to traditional soil. This prevents water from being exposed to air. Meanwhile, the plants add to the overall air quality of the space by creating new oxygen rather than simply filtering it.

For example, at Planterra’s Henry Ford Hospital installation in West Bloomfield, Mich., two plant-filled atriums act as the facility’s lungs. Together they include roughly 2,500 live, oxygen-generating plants, which can be easily viewed from numerous patient rooms. The atriums also serve as important gathering spaces for large or small groups, offering more intimate conversation and reflection spaces.

Henry Ford Hospital President and CEO Gerard Van Grinsven also considers the garden an important extension of the hospital’s mission. “Even in the offseason time, our community can come here and be connected to nature, and really take advantage of its healing effects,” he said.

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New Medical Center Comes to Pennsylvania https://hconews.com/2012/08/02/new-medical-center-comes-pennsylvania/ EAST NORRITON, Pa. — The new Einstein Medical Center Montgomery (EMCM) is the first new hospital to be built in Pennsylvania in over a decade and is set to open in September. EMCM will operate as a full service acute-care hospital for members of the community.

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EAST NORRITON, Pa. — The new Einstein Medical Center Montgomery (EMCM) is the first new hospital to be built in Pennsylvania in over a decade and is set to open in September. EMCM will operate as a full service acute-care hospital for members of the community.

The hospital will include a level III neonatal intensive care unit (NICU); advanced medical and radiation oncology and open-heart surgery departments. Other services will include OB/GYN, cardiovascular, bariatrics, orthopedics, a cancer center, women’s health, outpatient services, and minimally invasive robotic procedures. The construction costs came in at $150 million, while the project cost totaled $265 million.

The building is designed around a multi-story atrium that creates an entry to the hospital and orients views to the Norristown Farm Park across the road. Views of the park helped set the tone in terms of interior design for the hospital and brought inspiration from nature and sunlight, according to the New York City office of Perkins+Will, architects for the project.

“Natural materials like wood and stone in neutral colors were used to allow the focal point to be the changing scene outside the building,” said Laura Morris, senior interior designer at Perkins+Will.

“Every effort was made throughout the planning of the building to provide access to daylight for staff and visitors. Patient rooms feature expansive windows that take advantage of the views, and are designed to promote patient comfort,” said Carolyn BaRoss, design principal at Perkins+Will.

The 363,000-square-foot medical center will have an attached medical office building that will take up to 75,000 square feet. The office building, known as the Medical Arts Building, will have a freestanding ambulatory surgical center with four operating rooms, radiation and medical oncology programs, the antenatal testing unit, and space for private physicians.

In addition, some services will go into one of three off-campus sites. The Women’s Diagnostic Unit will be housed right across the street from the hospital, and the Sleep Center and Wound Care Center will be located about five miles down the road. A professional office space located on the EMCM campus will host hospital-based services to continue to service the community that remains around the old campus.

Design began in 2007, but construction for the hospital didn’t begin until July 2010 due to the dip in the economy in 2008, which made financing more complicated. Construction of the office building followed a year later, with a start date of July 2011.

“The projects were deliberately timed to end at the same time,” said Rick Montalbano, vice president and project executive for Einstein Healthcare Network. “If the projects had started at the same time, the Medical Arts Building would have sat empty for a year while construction continued on the hospital.”

The Medical Arts Building is 100 percent occupied, with 11 tenants in the two-story building.

Funding for the project came from equity, with bonds from FHA Mortgage Insurance rounding out the balance.

Currently the hospital has enough points to achieve LEED Silver certification, something that the Einstein Healthcare Network had aimed to achieve.

“I think there is a tremendous amount of excitement regarding the new facility. There is going to be a state-of-the-art medical center in the community that didn’t exist before,” said Beth Duffy, chief operating officer for Einstein Medical Center Montgomery.

A community day is being planned for September 22, a week before the official opening. Tours through the new facility will occur, with educational forums and children activities happening, and a concert and fireworks display rounding out the evening.

“We are very excited about the hospital opening in the fall,” said Robert Goodwin, design principal at Perkins + Will. “It will send a strong statement about advanced health care in a highly-efficient, comfortable and sustainable new facility that will be a welcomed new resource for the community.”

To make the transition easier for the patients and staff of the new facility, electronic medical records will be implemented using records from EMCM going back a year.

Einstein Healthcare Network found the need for the new facility when they realized residents of Central Montgomery County were going outside of the county for their health care needs, according to Duffy.

“Our data showed about 60 percent of residents leave Montgomery County, primarily going into the city, and so we believed we had an opportunity,” said Duffy.

Montgomery Hospital Medical Center (MHMC), a single-based entity, partnered with Einstein Medical Center Montgomery in order to build a new medical center, go into the market with an existing patient base and medical staff, and open a new hospital to serve the needs of the county.

The patients currently at MHMC will move to EMCM in late September, at which time MHMC will close. Currently, EMCM is only using one-third of its 87 acres of space, allowing for ample growth in the future.

“When we acquired the site, we knew that the site was much larger than what we needed for today’s project; so the site has been master-planned with its roadway systems and utilities to grow,” said Montalbano.

“It [EMCM] was really built from the patient and family perspective,” added Montalbano. “While there is much here that talks about the efficiency of how hospitals work, there is also much here that says that we understand the role of the patient and the family and the healing process.”

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Lara Maria Diaz https://hconews.com/2011/02/28/lara-maria-diaz/ Mon, 28 Feb 2011 20:44:39 +0000 KMD Architects, a San Francisco-based architectural firm providing exceptional healthcare, hospitality, justice, academic, commercial and corporate architectural services, has promoted Lari Maria Diaz, AIA, LEED AP, EDAC, from Director to Principal. Maria Diaz, who joined KMD in 1992, has extensive experience developing functional and space programs and implementing them in complex building and campus environments.

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KMD Architects, a San Francisco-based architectural firm providing exceptional healthcare, hospitality, justice, academic, commercial and corporate architectural services, has promoted Lari Maria Diaz, AIA, LEED AP, EDAC, from Director to Principal. Maria Diaz, who joined KMD in 1992, has extensive experience developing functional and space programs and implementing them in complex building and campus environments. Her professional experiences include research, planning and design of a variety of healthcare and corporate campus facilities. She is a key member of the senior leadership team responsible for expanding KMD’s footprint in the Middle East.

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Finding Common Ground With BIM https://hconews.com/2011/02/18/seeking-agnostic-switzerland-in-the-world-bim/ It is a generally accepted principal that the building industry has traditionally been slow to embrace change and new technologies. The Great Recession, which started in 2007, has been a major factor in changing this and has provided significant impetus to do things better, faster and cheaper, through any means available.

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It is a generally accepted principal that the building industry has traditionally been slow to embrace change and new technologies. The Great Recession, which started in 2007, has been a major factor in changing this and has provided significant impetus to do things better, faster and cheaper, through any means available. Two primary factors are motivating this push: owners demanding a better way of doing things, and the desire for firms to differentiate themselves in a highly competitive market.

The last three years stand out for the advances and uptake of technology in construction and design information. The trend is accelerating as more firms realize (mainly through lost work to tech-savvy competitors) that if they don’t change how they do their work, they will surely be left behind.

On the design front, sophisticated 3D CAD programs have made major leaps forward. Automated information management systems for programs and projects have given managers previously unattainable real time transparency and control in a very data-intensive industry, however with new software such as Stream Processing, the processing of massive amounts of data in real-time is looking to be very possible, no matter the volume of data sets. New pressures such as sustainable design, the introduction of new materials, and new standards and processes such as LEED and LEAN have played a major role in pushing green, efficient, and environmentally sensitive projects forward.

These advancements are prevalent in four traditional silos in our industry: design, schedule, project information and document management. In the design arena the increase in the use of 3D Building Information Modeling (BIM) is nothing short of astounding – a year ago some of us had heard about BIM but probably had very little direct exposure to its use. Today, most projects of significance are likely being designed using a 3D BIM platform. The evolution of the added dimensions (4D, 5D and 6D) for quantity survey, estimating, schedule integration and energy analysis is also picking up momentum. The same is true for specialized schedule, project information and document management platforms, which have advanced together with design technologies by becoming web-based, user friendly and transparent. The platforms are also driving huge Return On Investment (ROI) through time saving mechanisms like automated workflow and dashboarding.

Still, there are two significant shortfalls surrounding the current state-of-the-art technology. The lack of interoperability between different applications is a drawback. Additionally, the four to six primary team members, who usually come together for one project, each have invested significant resources into their own applications and are reluctant to change what works for them. The “Holy Grail” to these shortfalls is an agnostic and open platform that will communicate with the “Best of Breed” applications and is flexible enough to work with the industry advancements discussed above as well as those yet to come.

In my more than 30 years in the industry, I’ve worked with numerous packages and project management platforms, but could not find any that meet all the owner’s and project’s needs. All the platforms had valuable features, but none could reconcile the conflict associated with serving an owner’s multi-project, long- term needs while avoiding becoming a hostage to unknown future fees. Additionally, the dangers of relying on a system that may not be recognizable in ten years due to buyouts, changes in product direction and/or the bankruptcy of the proprietary software was not worth the risks.

The solution to this is creating a portal where various groups (from owners to subcontractors) can easily work together. This limits many of the inherent dangers outlined above, by eliminating the reliance of all parties to use an expensive, proprietary software program. For this to deliver the most benefits, a portal needs to be cost effective, easy to use, secure, stable, customizable and fairly neutral – an “Agnostic Switzerland” which acts as the central hub used on a typical project for connecting and integrating myriad “Best of Breed” software systems.

Microsoft SharePoint provides an excellent starting point for this type of solution. The platform is a web-based technology that allows for collaboration and content distribution. Everything from corporate intranets, program/project based extranets and even standard Internet web pages are accessible to the public.

The SharePoint platform itself is versatile and has powerful built-in document management, workflow, security and search and reporting capabilities. Its real power for our industry is that it can be used (and to a large extent was designed) to build systems on top of and integrate third-party software into its framework.

For example, by integrating Primavera’s CM13 and P6 with SharePoint, project managers can get one of the best broad collaboration platforms around as well as the deep contract management /tracking provided by CM13 and scheduling provided by P6. They can also pull data directly from CM13 and/or P6 to show custom reports on demand.

Most medium to large organizations now utilize Microsoft SharePoint. Non-technical people can easily work with the platform as it looks and feels much like any other Microsoft application and seamlessly interfaces with Microsoft Office. I liken SharePoint to a very flexible and powerful engine. However, only IT professionals proficient at architecting, building and optimizing the platform for large scale Enterprise applications can effectively harness its raw power, working in collaboration with subject matter experts (SMEs) familiar with our industry.

Through the use of a portal based on Microsoft SharePoint, such as SharePoint360, project managers can, within minutes, set up a project website with the appropriate document libraries; invite guests; manage the site contents and share project data aggregated from various sources. This enables project managers to eliminate laborious systems that did not communicate well with each other. The confluence of all these benefits impacts every party in the construction and development process. Within just a few weeks the base site is up and usable. Full build-out can take anywhere between three and 12 months depending on the project’s complexity.

The ROI can often have significant benefits, such as winning a bid. We have seen this first-hand, with technology cited as a differentiator securing work for the Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital in Los Angeles.

Other benefits include:

  • Savings in licensing costs for specialized software
  • Decrease of administrative effort
  • Reduction in IT infrastructure
  • Reduced processing times for all transactions
  • Elimination of dependency on specific software vendors
  • Real time data and dashboards are available for decision-making
  • Transparency on all levels of the project
  • Facilitation for use of valuable legacy software that has had significant historical investment

Transparency is particularly paramount on most publicly funded projects. Previously, supplying the public with up-to-date, accurate information on contracting opportunities, job availability and project status required significant commitment and cost for administration. With SharePoint, the flow of information is automated from the project portal to a public-facing website, which clearly updates all stakeholders on the aspects important to them. Transparency has provided a new level of public trust, which in turn leads to a willingness to support initiatives that involve tax expenditures on public projects.

Ultimately, as BIM advances, evolves and integrates into the construction process, the industry is at last seeing the ability to build projects in a “factory,” albeit a virtual one. At the end of the day, saving time and money is ultimately what any construction management firm is looking for with every project. And as the industry looks to find technologies that harness the talents and insights of all participants to optimize project results, increase value, reduce waste, and maximize efficiency, technology platforms help the designer to spend more time building and less time dealing with the complex technical IT details.

Yehudi Gaffen founded Gafcon Inc. in 1987 and has more than 30 years of construction and program management experience. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Construction Management from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

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