The ever-changing healthcare industry is currently facing unprecedented change with emerging medical technologies, an aging population, the increased need for inpatient and outpatient services, and continuous cost pressures. Not to mention, in California, the clock is ticking for acute care facilities to be seismically retrofitted or replaced by 2008 (or 2013 with an extension) to meet Senate Bill 1953 requirements. In the world of healthcare construction, general contractors and subcontractors are challenged with meeting the growing needs of healthcare customers in a time of rising material costs, limited qualified resources and aggressive schedules.

How will supply meet demand? Now, more than ever, we need to do more with less—less time, less resources, less cost—and truly collaborate.

In 1990, DPR set out to challenge “customary practices” and re-examine relationships between building contractors and owners, developers, architects and engineers. We placed a strong emphasis on a collaborative approach and early involvement that has helped us streamline communication processes and successfully build projects “smarter, faster, better.” Ten years ago, we also participated in the Collaborative Process Institute with seven other organizations to help “revolutionize the building industry by establishing collaboration as the cornerstone of the building process.” The group defined a collaborative process model to promote a balanced blend of people and systems to achieve the optimal combination of cost, quality, function, scope and time. (see technical paper published on http://www.dprinc.com.)

Today, we have taken yet another step as part of a collaborative team building a 250,000-sq.-ft. medical office building and parking structure using lean construction techniques and virtual design and construction technology (see Camino Medical Group story). The team recently organized a panel discussion for the industry to discuss the benefits of the process, particularly the use of 3-D virtual drawings to coordinate the entire mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection systems design. One of the questions posed to the more than 15-person panel was “what if the owner doesn’t ask for this, would you do it again?” Most answered yes; the owner representative, however, answered “no, I would not do it over again. We’re going to do it even better. There is the common thread of learning that we want to build upon.”

Some of the fundamental lessons we have re-learned through this process are that virtual modeling is early learning, technology is only there to help make the process work, most of the issues have been the result of a breakdown in communication, and to achieve great results, there must be great trust among all project stakeholders. We also have learned that projects really are a network of commitments, and by learning together, from this experience and others, we know we can build more with less.