On March 20, Meritus Health Center in Hagerstown, Md., submitted an emergency certificate of need to the state of Maryland’s Healthcare Commission, which one day later approved the hospital’s plan for its permanent 2 South Regional Infection Containment Wing to support COVID-19 infected patients.
Two days after that approval, Gilbane Building Company and Matthei & Colin Associates started assembling a building team to design and build this new facility. (A decade earlier, this same team built the 510,000-sf, 267-bed Meritus Medical Center in what at that time was a record 30 months.)
“Eight days after our initial call, our team was moving soil and digging foundations,” says Gary Orton, vice president and director of healthcare for Gilbane’s Mid-Atlantic division. “A project like this would typically take more than a year to conceptualize, design and build, but we didn’t have that kind of time.”
The steel framing was erected in six weeks and the building was airtight in two months. Streamlining was evident in the reduction of the construction punch list to seven open items, from 73.
The 12,560-sf addition was completed on July 31; the time between the start of designing this wing and its receipt of a temporary certificate of occupancy was only 120 days. The addition was accepting patients by early August.
Also see: A time-lapse video of the hospital wing’s construction
A STREAMLINED PROCESS
As this project proceeded, the first critical steps, according to Matthei & Colin, were defined as: identifying long lead materials/systems and get them ordered as the building was being designed; engaging County and State officials to develop a plan to streamline the permit processes, while ensuring quality and safety of the final product; and developing a schedule with major milestones identified along the critical path.
“We reinvented decision making and certification processes to recognize the realities of working remotely and serving the schedule to bring the facility online as quickly as possible for the community,” says William Heun, lead architect for the project and partner with Matthei & Colin Associates.
According to Gilbane, the fast-track schedule was abetted by bringing the Washington County (Md.) permit and inspections department into daily meetings with the Building Team, to identify areas of improvement and to minimize delays in the permitting and life safety processes.
Gilbane adds that the design-to-permit time for the addition, which normally would take six to nine months for a building this size, was whittled down to less than six weeks.
The team exercised Lean practices to coordinate and streamline processes, expedite permitting, and procurement, design, and construction.
Exterior metal stud wall framing was fabricated on the ground and lifted into place when the structural steel frame was erected. Millwork and casework were assembled in the largest and most complete units possible. Headwalls were prefabricated with all power, gases, outlets and light controls in place, reducing installation time and providing a single point of connection above the ceiling. Door hardware was installed on doors off site, to minimize carpenters’ time in the project area.
Among the project's time-saving measures was prefabricating the patient room headwalls. Image: Gilbane, courtesy of Meritus Health.
ADDITION SUITED TO TREAT ALL INFECTIOUS DISEASES
CM Cost Plus Fee was the delivery method deployed for this $12.5 million addition, which is the first of its kind in the region, with 20 ventilator-capable negative pressure isolation rooms designed and built to contain any type of infectious disease. A sophisticated nurse call system enhances connectivity between patients and the nursing staff. Eight of the wing’s rooms have corridor windows with integrated blinds.
The Building Team included Frederick, Seibert & Associates (CE, land surveying, and landscape architecture), Leach Wallace Associates (MEP engineer), and GRAEF-USA (SE). Other suppliers and subcontractors listed are Heffron, Cindell Construction, Davenport Commercial, Ellsworth Electric, Emmitsburg Glass, Johnson Controls, Kalkreuth Roofing and Sheet Metal, KBK Builders, Kinsley Manufacturing, Modular Services, PAINTech, Ruppert Landscape, Robert W. Sheckles, Siemens, Swisslog Healthcare Solutions, Triad Engineering, and Virginia Sprinkler.
Related Stories
Healthcare Facilities | Apr 13, 2017
Investors and developers are still avid for medical office buildings
A new CBRE survey finds that equity set aside for purchases continues to outshoot the availability of in-demand supply.
Healthcare Facilities | Apr 13, 2017
The rise of human performance facilities
A new medical facility in Chicago focuses on sustaining its customers’ human performance.
Healthcare Facilities | Apr 11, 2017
Today’s community centers offer glimpses of the healthy living centers of tomorrow
Creating healthier populations through local community health centers.
Healthcare Facilities | Apr 2, 2017
Comfort and durability were central to the design and expansion of a homeless clinic in Houston
For this adaptive reuse of an old union hall, the Building Team made the best of tight quarters.
Healthcare Facilities | Mar 31, 2017
The cost of activating a new facility
Understanding the costs specifically related to activation is one of the keys to successfully occupying the new space you’ve worked so hard to create.
Sponsored | Healthcare Facilities | Mar 29, 2017
Using Better Light for Better Healthcare
Proper lighting can improve staff productivity, patient healing, and the use of space in healthcare facilities
Healthcare Facilities | Mar 29, 2017
Obamacare to Republicare: Making sense of the chaos in healthcare
With a long road of political and financial uncertainty ahead for the healthcare sector, what does this mean for the nonresidential construction industry’s third-largest sector?
Healthcare Facilities | Mar 24, 2017
5 insights for designing a human-centered pediatric experience
Pediatric experience design must evolve beyond the common mantra of “make it fun” or “make it look kid-friendly.”
Healthcare Facilities | Mar 3, 2017
CBRE: Developing a total project budget for a healthcare capital project
Successfully developing a complete and well thought out Total Project Budget is perhaps the most important task you’ll perform in the initial phase of your project.
Healthcare Facilities | Feb 26, 2017
A Georgia Tech white paper examines the pros and cons of different delivery systems for ICUs
It concludes that a ceiling-mounted beam system is best suited to provide critical care settings with easier access to patients, gases, and equipment.