October, 2013
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new surgical suite at St. joseph’s hospital, part of KBe’s recently completed, $98 million renovation and addition.
the conStruction doctorS are in:
How to Build a Winning Medical Construction Team mike Kolakowski, principal and ceo, KBe Building corporation
pretty soon, our guys will start carrying stethoscopes in their tool boxes. Well, maybe that’s a little extreme, but if we keep up our recent trend of medical construction projects, they will at least be able to ace the medical terms category on the next episode of jeopardy. MedIcal facIlIty coNstrUctIoN — from hospital
renovations and new buildings to highly technical laboratory construction to medical teaching facilities — is fast becoming a core strength at KBe Building corporation. What started several years ago as a strategic move to expand our market diversity into the health care field has developed into a series of success stories of on-budget (or under) and on-schedule (or ahead-of-schedule) projects. Here’s how we built the team that is making this happen. Extend Knowledge from Other Markets With 54 years of experience and more than $2.5 billion in construction volume during the last decade alone, KBe has a lot of experience to tap. Indeed, we found that one of our leading market sectors, educational facilities construction, had a lot to offer in preparing us for Medical construction. The greatest similarity between these two project types has been knowing how to navigate the challenges of working in occupied structures with vulnerable populations. among the parallels: • Unique safety considerations • scheduling challenges
• Noise management
• Navigating restrictive working hours/daily routines But those similarities go only so far… clearly, we needed to quickly learn the true intricacies of building in the medical arena. Develop Industry Expertise In a hospital or health care setting, construction doesn’t occur in a vacuum (except of course, when it actually occurs in a vacuum – see the third bullet below). It is affected by a myriad of significant challenges, including:
Deliver! We don’t deliver babies, but we deliver great projects. and when the demanding leaders of metropolitan hospitals, such as Kathryn ruscitto, ceo of st. Joseph’s Hospital in syracuse, Ny, are happy, that’s really all that matters. In commenting on KBe’s recent performance in completing the $98 million addition and renovation at st. Joseph Hospital in syracuse, Ny, Ms. ruscitto said “not many ceos can talk about their project being under budget and ahead of schedule, and I am grateful to our construction team for their great work.” *
• Infectious control issues, especially in medicalcritical areas
• Unexpected emergencies that may halt work at a moment’s notice • Working under negative pressure conditions
• The 24/7 impact of all construction activities
assemble the Best team available as construction managers, we’re in the knowledge business, not the hammer-swinging business. so our people are our number one resource and competitive advantage. our medical-construction team averages 26 years of experience constructing medical facilities, and has overseen some of the highest-profile projects in the region. see the accompanying summaries for more info.
• The involvement of many more decision makers, including not only upper hospital administrators, but also medical department heads and the end users — the physicians and medical staff who require exacting customizations.
Building our medical construction team has been challenging, but very fulfilling as we see such great projects rise from the ground to keep people healthy. I’m looking forward to seeing what this team does next.
*KBe completed the project in partnership with the hayner hoyt corporation.
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