Many great things have been achieved by construction. Commercial projects have imbued society with excellent infrastructure, powering the economy while giving organizations a place to call home.
That said, healthcare construction projects can be more large-scale. The wider scope means that there could be potential for more risks being involved. More money and time are typically thrown behind these endeavors as well, so if things start to collapse, significant resources can be lost.
As forecasts emerge predicting a construction renaissance in multiple sectors like healthcare, it’s important to reevaluate what’s required of a well-managed healthcare construction project. If you’re leading one, here’s a quick reminder of some of the best principles.
Utilize Healthcare Project Management Software
Software is becoming more streamlined. Each new technology released is more intricately tailored to a certain type of user. Fortunately, healthcare project management software is helping construction projects in the sector move along in a timelier fashion. They increase efficiency, improve cost control, and help project managers maintain regulatory compliance. Moreover, there’s typically a greater focus on agility with these systems, allowing hospital construction projects to adapt to rapid sector-wide advancements in technology and equipment.
Kahua is a reliable provider of healthcare construction management software today. They’re trusted by leading healthcare systems and listen to each of their client’s concerns. There’s an understanding that every healthcare construction project has unique challenges, and the systems on offer here are designed accordingly. Request a demo to try their tools around controlling costs, managing funding, meeting compliance standards, and more.
It’s important to optimize standards in a healthcare construction project. These measures must also be standardized for greater consistency, especially if best practices are transferred from one construction project to the next. By having a complete digital overview, everything can be managed and maintained on one convenient platform.
Conduct a Risk Assessment
You need to closely monitor many things as a healthcare construction project manager. They include:
- Categorizing patient health – If the construction project involves extending or renovating existing premises, then you’ll need to consider the patients’ welfare at that institution.
- Classifying construction techniques – May your activities temporarily contaminate nearby water systems? How much dust is likely to be created? Are any loud noises or other types of disruptions estimated to occur?
- Ensuring continuity – Do your plans consider whether healthcare workers can continue to do their jobs? A phased approach to the construction works could ensure that the healthcare facilities remain operational.
Addressing these concerns can be done by conducting a thorough risk assessment pre-construction. That way, the project can be better structured, allowing all workers to adopt a more data-driven and focused approach to their work. Timelines can be better defined, budgets more evenly set, and all workers will adapt more easily.
Employ Safeguarding Measures
Further considerations are required if a healthcare construction project occurs near patients. Certain activities may risk their well-being.
For example, some renovation projects can be required of landoll trailers ads because of a structure’s degradation. However, if you remove a wall or ceiling that has heavy mold, the disruption can cause its bacteria and spores to become more airborne. After that, they can spread, creating or exacerbating the risk of infectious disease to immunocompromised patients nearby.
Therefore, your construction zone needs to be airtight. Infectious disease control measures have to be immensely efficient. Ideally, you would employ a disaster restoration contracting organization to keep these situations under control. They will be trained in infectious diseases and air control. Furthermore, these professionals can disinfect affected areas efficiently in an emergency. Handy in an emergency and general safeguarding, their contributions to your healthcare construction management strategies could be vital.
Remember, immunocompromised people also have to take precautions in their daily lives as well. You must be prepared to think partly as they do when working on a healthcare construction project. While some construction projects can be led in a more detached and solely calculative way, your healthcare construction management style must have empathy at its core.
Think About Space and Flow
Renovation projects can be disruptive at the best of times. Still, you must mitigate those problems where you can. Healthcare institutions can be crowded with people. Medical staff have enough to contend with on that basis. If they have to wade through throngs of patients and your construction crews, it can be debilitating to their efficiency and perhaps even risk patient well-being in emergencies.
Do your best to stay clear of where your construction crews do not need to be. You should gain permission to access any lifts to transport heavier goods. You won’t obstruct corridors or stairwells when moving heavier goods around. Instead of using main entrances, you may be granted access to back doors or even fire escapes for faster and quicker entry. Enquire about their use and gain permission, though, so that alarms are not triggered.
The specialist equipment healthcare organizations utilize is expensive, and your construction firm can be liable for damages were it to be found responsible for any damages. Of course, patients can suffer additional risks if equipment for their treatment is damaged. Consequently, it’s advised that you and your construction team travel optimum routes around these institutions and have an acute awareness of your surroundings.
Incorporate Sustainability
Eco-friendly measures are a requirement of all building sites in all sectors. Each project is a golden opportunity to further green aims. Think about the long-term consequences of your healthcare construction project. Can any measures be implemented that drastically reduce on-site and post-construction energy consumption? Are you able to source recycled materials from responsible suppliers? May your project be further tweaked and adapted in future to account for future healthcare technologies?
Moreover, in 2019 medical professionals upheld eco-friendly values, and continue to do so today. Anything you can to align your principles can future-proof your healthcare construction project.
The decisions you make around sustainability can affect people’s health near and far. Therefore, it’s even more fitting that you take these precautions seriously. Even the smaller victories are worth exploring here, so try to do what you can with sustainability.
Discuss Your Plans
No construction project is overseen with a cavalier attitude. All aspects of it must not only be prepared for but also widely discussed. Ideally, you’ll be able to reach out to all the vendors and subcontractors that are partaking in the project. Hosting these preconstruction meetings means that lines of communication are crisp and clear and that everyone understands their role completely.
Similarly, all the major building components your project is set to introduce should also be pre-discussed. You could chair a pre-installation meeting before each addition and thoroughly discuss what these components do and how they will be implemented. Everybody should be able to adequately understand the endgame of what your project is trying to achieve.
Medical staff can sometimes be the last to be informed of crucial updates. However, they must be regularly consulted to ensure that spaces are functional and meet their standards. Encourage your crews to engage with them and relay any remarks they receive on your progress. All contributions are useful, and builders and medical professionals should be on the same side.
If what you’ve created isn’t functional, it’s not just unsightly – it can impede how well medical staff perform their roles and thus harm patients’ well-being too. Defer to their expertise, for if you’re slow to share crucial information with the appropriate parties, then it can lead to a staggered construction timeline and critical misunderstandings.