Careful Coordination, Strong Communication Prove Critical to Success of Ongoing Renovation at OSHPD-Regulated Acute Care Facility

Directly above 30 fully functioning medical surgery rooms at the ValleyCare Medical Center in Pleasanton, CA, as patients recover from various surgical procedures, DPR crews are currently performing a delicate operation of their own. Their challenge: to complete an 18,000-sq.-ft., third-floor buildout with minimal disruption to the operations and occupants of the 24-hour acute care facility on the floor just below.

In addition to converting the former shell space into a new 30-bed medical surgery facility that meets California’s Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) standards, the project also entails installation of four elevators. DPR instituted a series of measures to segregate the ongoing construction activity from hospital operations, including establishing a 100 x 100 ft. fenced and partitioned material staging area. All material is conveyed via forklift to the third floor through a 25-ft. wide section of building facade that has been temporarily removed to allow access.

Next to the material staging area, another window section has been removed to accommodate a temporary stair tower, which offers the sole means of access and egress for construction crews. A green mesh cover over the tower serves to camouflage and separate the activities of construction workers from the steady stream of patients, visitors and staff to and from the hospital.

Constant communication with hospital staff and administrators has also been vital to integrate the necessary construction work into hospital operations. DPR implemented special “disruption notification” procedures for construction operations that impact key building systems, with electrical tie-ins typically scheduled to dovetail with regular testing of the facility’s backup generator systems. “Our primary goal is to be as seamless as possible, so they don’t even notice that we’re affecting their systems when we must do utility interruptions,” said Project Manager Scott Sass.

Because of the added complexities of building an OSHPD-regulated project — subject to additional building code requirements and daily inspections — the team knew that early planning and MEP coordination would be essential. “We spent three weeks in preconstruction meetings with the subs resolving most of the utility conflicts,” said Superintendent John Eberhard. Because of those efforts and buy-in from the entire team, including designer Ratcliff Architects, DPR is currently trending four weeks ahead of the already aggressive 10-month schedule, originally slated for completion in March 2003.