Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Inc

Client:

Parkland Health and Hospital System

Scope Of Work

For Dallas Residents, the New Parkland Hospital is Just What the Doctor Ordered

BARA, a joint venture partnership formed by Balfour Beatty, Austin Commercial, H.J. Russell and Azteca, provided CM at Risk services for this landmark healthcare project. The 1.9 million-square-foot, 862-bed hospital was delivered utilizing an integrated, co-located team approach and employed lean construction principles such as extensive use of BIM, off-site manufacturing, pull-planning and centralized digital document management. The project achieved a LEED Silver certification and provides world-class healthcare to Dallas County residents.

The New Parkland Hospital facility replaced the current Parkland Hospital, which is the safety net hospital for Dallas County, Texas—caring for those who have nowhere else to turn due to the complexity of the case or financial need. Parkland is a nonprofit health care provider, educator, researcher and community servant. No other hospital surpasses Parkland’s contribution to the overall health and stability of the region. It is the medical home for a large portion of the population and often the hospital of choice for residents seeking emergency or critical care.

Parkland Hospital was founded in 1894. Parkland Hospital first opened its doors in 1954 on its current site across the street from the new facility. Over the years, it went through many expansions and transformations, eventually becoming one of the largest public hospital systems in the country. Parkland is the primary teaching hospital for the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. The original facility, licensed for 861 adult patient beds and 107 neonatal patient beds and more than 10,000 employees, averages more than 1 million patient visits annually. With no more room to expand and the aging infrastructure unable to sustain the rapid growth of the patient population, Dallas County leaders realized a new facility would be the only solution to address their increasing needs.

The leaders of Parkland Health & Hospital System desired a facility that would not only accommodate their current patient load and allow for future growth, but would also enable them to offer the latest advancements in medical care. It was soon evident that a facility that addressed all of their needs would be one of the largest healthcare facilities ever constructed as a single project.

The hospital – one of the largest new hospitals under construction in the world at that time – is comprised of building blocks stacked strategically to maximize clinical functionality and offer acute care and outpatient services. Within the acute care hospital are three distinct clinical areas:

Diagnostic and Treatment Block (Emergency Department, Lobby, Chapel, Dining, Imaging, Endoscopy, Cardiology, Lab, Pharmacy, Labor and Delivery, Surgery, Neonatal ICU)

Acute Care Tower (SICU, burn unit, medical unit, psychiatric unit)

Women’s and Infants Specialty Hospital (WISH Clinic) (Postpartum, Nursery) (Core and Shell only)

The owner realized that a project of this scope would be best served by an integrated team approach, and selected the BARA CMAR team simultaneously with the design team, HDR Architecture, based in Omaha, Nebraska and Corgan Associates of Dallas. The selection of the BARA team was based largely on our qualifications, which included a reputation for integrated delivery and an understanding of "the importance of building a first-class hospital while remaining fiscally prudent and addressing Parkland's unique needs."

Parkland co-located the design and construction team, which worked in a BIM environment to optimize communication and planning among the project delivery team. During this critical preconstruction planning phase, Parkland requested that Balfour Beatty provide the operational planning staff to interface with all of Parkland's user groups to carefully plan and coordinate the communication among all of the stakeholders in the phased design, construction and transition from the existing hospital. These planners have the responsibility to communicate the day-to-day project details to the design team and Parkland staff and develop the long-term delivery plan with metrics to measure progress and performance. Frequently, the function is a design assist role to advise the design team across a wide range of topics such as medical equipment and technology integration, BIM optimization and MEP system optimization.

Lean Construction Techniques

Pull Planning: With the guidance of Lean Coaches from the Re-alignment Group, the BARA team implemented pull planning and other “lean construction” techniques on the project. During weekly pull planning meetings, inclusive of owner representation, construction management and subcontractor staff, the team addressed upcoming work and identifies where work needed to be re-sequenced to achieve maximum efficiency in the schedule. Use of pull planning makes a project more efficient, thereby reducing project cost, and reducing the number of workers on site; helping to mitigate potential safety hazards.

Off-site Manufacturing: At the Off-Site Fabrication and Logistics (OFL) Facility for the New Parkland Hospital project, 750 bathroom pods, three miles of overhead mechanical/electrical racks and 850 headwalls were assembled for installation in the new hospital located two blocks away. Off-site manufacturing enhanced the project schedule, maximized the quality of the finished product and enhanced safety by allowing several trades to work at “waist-to-shoulder” height instead of using ladders in a congested construction zone.

Parkland’s Vision

"The new Parkland Hospital will be a safe, welcoming, patient-centered, healing environment that serves as a sustainable resource for Dallas County. It will promote excellence in clinical care, teaching and research in a technologically advanced, easily accessible environment." This vision statement became the team’s benchmark for success.

Clinical Liaisons Incorporated Into the Team

Over 900 stakeholders were involved in influencing, evaluating, or confirming decisions needed for the project. The original methodology for obtaining input from senior clinical operations leaders at the user level proved to be time consuming and impractical for the duration of the project. As an alternate, three full-time clinical liaison positions from the medicine, surgery and the women’s services divisions were created to work directly with the project team. This allowed for active and timely communications with the hospital’s senior leadership and user groups and provided the project team with an accurate insight into how the hospital would ultimately function. The clinical liaisons were Registered Nurses at Parkland, and were co-located at the project team office for the duration of the project. Their collective 50 years of nursing experience provided depth and breadth of knowledge about current operations, and the needs and opportunities for improvements to create a healing environment for patients, families and staff.

The result is a beautiful, patient-centered hospital that will serve the healthcare needs of Dallas residents for years to come.

Parkland Hospital Awards & Accolades

Parkland Health & Hospital System was named the 2015 Public Entity of the Year from Regional Hispanic Contractors Association
Building Design + Construction Magazine – Building Team Award: Gold, 2015
Greater Dallas Planning Council Dream Study Award (Design) 2010