DPR Delivers Project Three Weeks Early with Zero Defects

On a recently completed project at St. David’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas, a DPR-led project team demonstrated that careful preplanning and preparation, coupled with quality construction, really does pay off.

The team on the St. David’s Women’s Center/Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) received a rare “zero deficiency” inspection from the Texas Department of Health (TDH), after conducting a “mock” inspection 48 hours earlier. During the mock inspection, the team uncovered and worked through minor glitches to get the new NICU up and running flawlessly in time for the actual TDH inspection two days later. Add to the fact that the project received a signed Zero Defects letter from the architect and was delivered three weeks early, and this is one job that can be considered an unqualified success.

The two-phased project at St. David’s included a 5,000-sq.-ft. finish-out of raw shell space for the hospital’s new NICU, as well as renovation of three post-partum rooms, fetal assessment, and a waiting area. The new NICU includes 25 headwalls for infant incubators, warmers and patient-monitoring equipment. DPR completed the NICU buildout, the first phase of the project, on January 1, and is slated to complete the second phase on June 28. The entire project is taking place within one of the most sensitive areas of this fully occupied hospital, where many of the sickest children in the Austin area are treated, and directly above the hospital’s operating rooms.

“The project location presented several challenges. The existing NICU shared a wall with our construction site and we were above several operating rooms and the central sterile. Noise control and cleanliness were crucial elements for the success of this project” said Leah Payne of DPR, who is serving as the project manager.

The team worked with the facility to meet their infection control requirements and to control noise in order to minimize the impact on ongoing hospital operations. For three weeks, DPR worked two shifts to install the below-slab plumbing between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. Temporary containment rooms were constructed and removed in the affected locations inside the ORs and Central Sterile each night. Work had to be complete by 6 a.m. to allow the facility enough time to perform terminal clean in preparation for operations scheduled for 7 a.m.

Several medical gas shutdowns were required during the course of this project. During the vacuum shutdown, the facility provided temporary vacuum units at each NICU basinet to enable the necessary shutdown and transfer of the existing vacuum to the new NICU, a process that proceed flawlessly. “We had to plan our work and work our plan several weeks in advance. All vacuum lines were pre-made and installed up to the existing vacuum main to minimize the downtime of the line feeding the existing NICU,” said Tim Shannon, DPR project superintendent.

When it came time for the project to undergo the required TDH inspection at project completion, the team took special care to make certain the project would pass with flying colors.

A mock TDH inspection was conducted two days prior to the actual inspection and several issues surfaced that might have been problematic during the inspection. These issues were able to be corrected and a zero deficiency inspection was the end result. “Our team has been together through many TDH inspections in the past, but this was the first perfect inspection. The collaboration of our team with quality subcontractors and an excellent hospital facility group was the basis of our success,” said Payne.

Immediately following the successful TDH inspection, the project architect, Earl Swensson Associates, Inc., also signed DPR’s Zero Defects letter for the project. Through what Payne describes as a masterful coordination of the subcontractors and expert material tracking by the DPR superintendent and project engineer, phase one of this project was completed three weeks earlier than scheduled—a testament to the power of preplanning, coordination and teamwork.