McCarthy Tops Out Oklahoma Hospital Expansion Project
By Eric Althoff
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.—While the Oklahoma Heart Hospital’s Super West Expansion on its south campus won’t be fully completed until 2020, builder McCarthy Building Companies recently held a “topping out” ceremony for the development in the capital of the Sooner State. At that event, the final beam to be placed was signed by members of the construction team as well as civic leaders before being hoisted into place at the structure’s maximum height.
The Super West Expansion project, valued at $150 million, will be shared jointly by Oklahoma Heart Hospital and Mercy, one of the top healthcare systems in the country. The two firms have been working together for nearly two decades on various other healthcare-related projects. McCarthy, which has several offices around the country, is acting as construction manager for the new building.
“We’ve worked hard to build a highly collaborative project culture focused on strong communication planning and engagement,” McCarthy Senior Project Manager Joe Lewandowski said in a statement of his firm’s work on healthcare projects such as the Super West Expansion project. “The entire construction team is doing an exceptional job of weaving Lean principles throughout our processes.”
Lean principles were initially created by Toyota as a way to manage waste flow and inefficiency, according to ASME. Lead principles include value, value stream, planning schedules and maximizing construction efficiency and quality.
The new hospital facility will offer 44 patient beds, catheterization lab, pharmacies, imaging facilities, chapel, lobby, administration space, helipad, 180-space parking garage and a two-level energy plant.
“We feel so fortunate to be able to serve this incredible community and bring the high-quality health care Mercy is known for to a growing area,” Jim Gebhart, president of Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City and regional strategy officer for Mercy, said in a statement. “One of the most exciting aspects of this new facility is that we will have the ability to quite literally grow with the community. This hospital will have the space to be able to double our inpatient capacity in the future and expand services to meet the community’s needs.”
Added Peggy Tipton, chief operating officer for Oklahoma Heart Hospital: “We saw a need for additional health care services at our location in south Oklahoma City. We knew this was a great opportunity to expand our partnership with Mercy and better serve our patients and community.”
According to McCarthy, construction will continue as the current healthcare facility remains under operation, but patient care will not be affected as the construction continues at the adjacent facility. The projected six-story, 228,338-sq.-ft. hospital tower is scheduled to open in the summer of 2020. McCarthy is simultaneously expanding the existing hospital’s emergency department.
WHR Architects/EYP Health is serving as the project’s architect. Other project team partners include Bernhard TME (mechanical/electrical/plumbing engineer and commissioning) and Cardinal Engineering (civil engineer).