Construction Management of Healthcare Projects
Whether it is a home, a school, or a healthcare facility, constructing safe, resilient, sustainable, and affordable structures is paramount for creating safe communities and providing public safety.
According to McGraw-Hill Construction, the construction value of institutional facilities hovers around $100 billion annually, which is approximately 22 percent of the nation’s total building construction value. As such, the implications of the new Affordable Care Act for the healthcare construction industry could be profound.
Accordingly, development of healthcare facilities—from the initial concept to planning, design, construction, completion, commissioning, and maintenance—has gained critical importance in the national economy. While healthcare projects havemuch in common with other building construction types, they also have many unique features. Elements such as medical gas systems, specialized medical equipment, safety of patients incapable of self-preservation or self-evacuation, accessibility for patients in
hospital beds and wheelchairs, and the requirement that healthcare facilities remain functioning and operational during severe natural events and disasters are only some of the unique issues of healthcare projects.
In this context, the importance of state-of-the-art codes and standards becomes evident. The International Code Council (ICC), publisher of the family of International Codes, and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) of the American Hospital Association have been working closely to address needed advances in code requirements and have decided to partner with McGraw-Hill Professional in support of this book.
The great value of Construction Management of Healthcare Projects is its skillful coverage of several important issues dealing with healthcare projects. Authors Andrew Collignon, Sanjiv Gokhale, Tom Gormley, Thomas Koulouris, Terry Miller, Christopher Payne, Rusty Ross, and Rick Wood, each an expert in a specific area, have joined together to produce an invaluable source for all building construction professionals.
Codes and standards provisions of the International Building Code, NFPA, and ASHRAE related to healthcare projects are featured, along with many other relevant topics, including planning and predesign, budgeting, business planning, financing, traditional construction delivery methods, new delivery methods and alternate approaches, challenges of additions and renovations, specialized mechanical and electrical systems,medical technology and information systems, safety and infection control during construction, commissioning, occupying the project, and the future of healthcare construction.
Hospitals are similar in many respects to other types of buildings or structures. Common elements can be quickly identified by the lay person or the construction expert. All buildings have some type of foundation, structural elements, and envelopes or exterior skins. Other common basic building elements include plumbing, electrical, and HVAC systems. Many have conveying systems, such as elevators or escalators, and life safety systems, such as fire alarm or fire sprinkler systems. Hospitals have many of these common elements; however, they are also unique in many ways.
These differences include both building components, such as a medical gas system, and functions, such as providing emergency medical services. As a result of these many unique features, the design and construction of hospitals requires special considerations, skills, and processes.
The purpose of this book is to explain these unique construction requirements, to educate the reader on best practices and techniques, and to explore the latest trends and innovations in the hospital construction industry. The information here will help owners, builders, design professionals, and students understand how to successfully deliver healthcare projects by meeting and exceeding the near universal standards of
- Safety
- Quality
- Good relationships
- Budget
- Schedule
The challenge is to consistently deliver all of these items on the different types of healthcare projects across various locations in the United States and the world. Unlike manufacturing with typically fixed plants, a relatively consistent workforce and similar products, each construction project is unique. This is due to the fact that projects are in different geographic locations with a team of designers, builders, and subcontractors that are in the vast majority of cases assembled for that one particular project. Many times the contractors and subcontractors are selected on the basis of lowest cost, which often does not support the goals mentioned above. So in addition to the typical construction opportunities and risks, the unique aspects of healthcare facilities functions and systems .
DOWNLOAD :- HERE