Delivering on Modern Health Care Demands A/Z CORPORATION n
By Chip McAdams & Steven Biondo
S
outh County Health (SCH) is founded on more than a century of history and serves more than 125,000 residents in southern Rhode Island. The system operates numerous facilities throughout Washington County, Rhode Island, including the 100-bed South County Hospital. While it is necessary for SCH to keep pace with the growing community and its evolving health care needs, it is rarely possible to shut down areas of the facility for renovation—the hospital sees more than 225,000 outpatient visits alone each year. For this reason, SCH has relied on A/Z’s substantial experience in operational medical facilities to implement many of its most critical projects. Work in active hospitals frequently requires construction personnel to implement Infection Control Risk Assessment (ICRA) precautions and interim life safety measures (ILSM); standards set forth by the American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A/Z’s team includes many professionals who have undergone ASHE training to attain their Health Care Construction (HCC) certification. During our partnership with SCH, A/Z has coordinated numerous major upgrades to the active South County Hospital
SCH central sterile supply area
while ensuring continued safety for building occupants and operational continuity. These include projects for patient care (building addition for state-of-the-art OR, endoscopy suite expansion, and wound care relocation); imaging (MRI relocation and CT scan replacement); and back-of-house services (central sterile supply, pharmacy, and infrastructure). This expertise and familiarity with SCH’s facilities positioned A/Z to respond to an urgent need at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. SCH tasked A/Z to aggressively design and implement the conversion of 10 patient rooms into negatively pressurized spaces, which help limit the spread of airborne contagions. This included the installation of new exhaust units with HEPA filtration and emergency power.
South County Hospital Wakefied, Rhode Island
CIANBRO CHATTER
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