The $1.5 billion medical center will be located on UC San Francisco’s 60-acre biomedical research campus. It will be comprised of Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco, Betty Irene Moore Women’s Hospital and Bakar Cancer Hospital. The new facilities will include a 289-bed hospital complex with emergency and outpatient services.

On Feb. 1, the UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay will begin moving inpatients from the UCSF Parnassus and Mount Zion campuses. The medical center is strategically located in close proximity to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in Mission Bay. The new cancer hospital, as an example, will be near the HCSF Helen Diller Family Cancer Research Building.

The new medical center will also have the only helipad in San Francisco that will help with the transportation of critically ill babies, children and pregnant women.

“UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay profoundly advances our ability to fulfill our mission as a public hospital, providing high-quality health care that meets the future needs of the entire Bay Area,” said Mark Laret, CEO, UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals, in a statement. “By embedding clinical care within our research enterprise at Mission Bay, UCSF physicians and scientists in the forefront of cancer medicine, and women’s and children’s health will be able to more readily translate discoveries into next-generation therapies and cures.”

The hospitals will feature enhanced technology, including robotic couriers that will deliver linens, meals and medications. Private patient rooms will have interactive medical walls that will help patients communicate with families and clinicians. An imaging suite is being designed to help children calm their anxiety during an MRI by experiencing a virtual trolley ride or playing with animated animals.

The medical center will also feature 4.3 acres of green space and 1.2 acres of rooftop gardens. Design elements include interiors that showcase art and a public plaza, created in partnership with the city of San Francisco. The medical center is focused on energy efficiency, as well, and is targeting LEED Gold certification.

Design and construction for the major project is being handled by the Integrated Center for Design and Construction (ICDC), which began operations in 2009. More than 200 architects, engineers and contractors are working at a 12,000-square-foot command center in San Francisco. The project has brought together San Francisco-based architect Anshen & Allen and DPR Construction of Redwood City, Calif.

“The healing power of UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay extends beyond the hospitals’ walls, as clinicians and researchers work side by side to accelerate medical breakthroughs and transform the delivery of health care in this country,” said Sam Hawgood, MBBS, chancellor of UC San Francisco, in a statement. “It’s important to note that the hospital complex was built only through the generous philanthropic support of the Bay Area community, who share our vision of advancing health care across the world. We are greatly appreciative of their unwavering commitment to our mission over the past decade. ”

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The IPD Approach

The IPD approach is basically a collaboration between the builder, designer and owner, but to say that is truly an understatement. In fact, the construction team sees it more as creating a virtual organization. “We really try to think of ourselves as one company, not 23 firms; we just get paid differently,” said Stuart Eckblad, director of design and construction for the medical center.

One major example of the collaboration efforts is the collocation of 30 organizations at the building site, which Ray Trebino, project manager for Redwood City-headquartered DPR construction, the builder/contractor on the project, said he’s never experienced at this magnitude.

Having the entire project team located on site allows for them to have daily meetings and work together to solve any issues that may arise within minutes, hours or a day maximum. “Since it takes about seven years to design a building and health care requirements change very six months in terms of codes, we have the ability to adjust for those changes,” Eckblad said.

It also allows for the different members of the team to have a better understanding and respect for what each other is doing. “As an architect, I’m a few roles divorced from the mechanical subcontractor, but on this project we’re sitting 5 feet from them, and it gives me a greater amount of respect for what they’re doing and allows us to understand the battles of what each party is fighting,” said Tyler Krehlik, project architect for San Francisco-based Stantec, the architect on the project.

With strict sustainability standards and budget restraints, the project team appreciates that the IPD approach was used from day one, in which everyone gathered to learn the sustainability goals for the project — currently being built to meet LEED Gold standards — how they could be met and what other opportunities there were to exceed the goals.

Having worked on LEED-bound projects before, Trebino believes this method is helping achieve that goal smoothly. In fact, there have been no schedule delays yet. “We could not have stayed on schedule using any other delivery method; this is essential to it being at where it is today,” he said.

While IPD is most common in the design phase, this project is extending it through construction and even using it in the field itself, setting up computer tablets on the construction site so that everyone is up-to-date on the most current drawings.

“This delivery method identifies concerns earlier in the process and allows us to come to a resolution that benefits all and minimizes the impact,” Trevino said.

Construction Update

The 878,000-square-foot, $1.5 billion medical complex aims to set new standards in patient- and family-centered health care, sustainability, safety and translational medicine.

In December 2012, the exterior skin of the buildings and on-roof helipad were completed, and construction of the pad will start at the end of February. Plus, electric services were connected to the hospitals’ green energy center, which will provide the complex with power.

About 950 construction workers are currently working on the interior of all six floors, painting patient rooms, installing cabinetry and sinks, and laying bathroom tiles.

The 289-bed hospital complex for children, women and cancer patients (a much-anticipated patient-care component of the campus) will feature a 183-bed children’s hospital with urgent emergency and pediatric primary care and specialty outpatient facilities; a 70-bed adult hospital for cancer patients; a women’s hospital with cancer care, specialty surgery and select outpatient services, as well as a 36-bed birth center; and an energy center, helipad and parking structure.

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