Getting Up to Speed

Robins & Morton Delivering Significant Upgrades to Daytona-Area Hospitals

By Scott Judy

Two Robins & Morton-led teams are racing in Daytona Beach, Fla., to deliver more than $300 million in construction for the area’s two main hospitals by mid-2009.

The two projects Halifax Medical Center and Florida Hospital Ormond Memorial are for separate owners and will collectively provide more than 400 new private patient beds and over 1.1 million sq ft of new hospital space. Together, they’ll represent the most significant updates to the area’s health-care facilities in several decades.

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“This is going to be one of the most exciting things we’ve embarked on since I’ve been here,” says Michael Morgan, manager of facility operations for Halifax Medical Center and a 28-year hospital veteran. The project is the first addition of private rooms to the hospital’s main campus, located roughly 1 mi from Daytona International Speedway.

The Halifax expansion includes a 10-story, 180-bed tower addition, measuring 540,000 sq ft, that will also incorporate a new emergency department that is four times as big as the existing one and with twice as many treatment rooms. It also will provide a new hospital entrance. Robins & Morton’s contract amounts to about $150 million; total owner costs are estimated at $200 million.

“I can’t even begin to describe (the feeling),” adds Jacob Nagib, Halifax’s facilities manager. He says a hospital, in a sense, “belongs to the people it’s for them. It’s a life-saving thing, and so vital.”

Just a few miles away actually straddling the Daytona Beach/Ormond Beach city line Florida Hospital Ormond Memorial’s new 12-story, 600,000-sq-ft replacement facility is taking shape. The facility’s design incorporates an oval front portion and connected rectangular structure that features a mix of procedure facilities, surgery rooms, emergency department, patient rooms and administrative space.

Robins & Morton is delivering the Ormond project for Florida Hospital Memorial System/Adventist Health System, a repeat client for the contractor. Just a couple of years prior to this latest $155 million contract, Robins & Morton built Florida Hospital Flagler, a smaller replacement facility for Adventist Health System in nearby Flagler County.

It’s not surprising that Robins & Morton would find itself at the center of these Daytona additions. In Modern Healthcare’s most recent ranking of health-care contractors, the contractor placed second nationally, based upon the delivery of $564.4 million in health-care projects during 2006. According to Robins & Morton information, the company has placed within the ranking’s top five for 21 consecutive years.

Halifax

Robins & Morton broke ground on the project last April, when it initiated foundation work on the building footprint, located just north of the existing hospital. Upon completion, the new structure will house the hospital’s new main entrance and will connect to the existing main building.

The general contractor is self-performing some of the structural concrete work, says Ken Aquino, project superintendent.

“We’re moving aggressively on the decks,” he says. Aquino adds that the concrete crews were pouring twice daily and delivering a deck roughly every eight days. “We’re putting in a lot of effort and time on the front end on the structure. The structure is the critical path.”

So far, hospital officials say they are pleased with what they’ve seen of Robins & Morton, though they admit it’s still early.

Morgan, the manager of facility operations, says he’s impressed with the contractor’s attention to safety and job cleanliness, two factors he feels go hand-in-hand. Tie-off straps are poured into all of the walls and columns, for example, and “the job is always swept and clean.”

“They’ve really gone above and beyond what I’ve seen in the past,” Morgan adds.

Nagib, who also instructs contractors about proper health-care construction practices, has interacted extensively with Robins & Morton personnel over the years and understands their way of doing business. But the hospital’s standards for this project are high, he says.

“We’re in the honeymoon period (now),” he says, adding that he and Morgan will be paying close attention to details when interior work begins this summer.

“That’s when the marriage will really show its true colors,” Nagib says. “That’s when we’ll (start) arguing.”

Ormond

The challenges at the Florida Hospital Ormond Memorial replacement project are wholly different. Located on a 147-acre greenfield site fronting Interstate 95, the 12-story project totals approximately 718,000 sq ft, with an estimated 245 patient beds and central energy plant.

The project also includes 16 operating rooms, five catheterization labs, complete radiology department, pharmacy and other amenities.

As Ron Bowes, senior project manager for Robins & Morton, says, “It’s a complete functioning hospital all of the procedure rooms, all of the operating rooms and all of the facilities related to a hospital. We’ve got everything.”

Sitework began in June 2006, when P & S Paving of Ormond Beach began excavating and preparing the site. Six months later, in December, Robins & Morton which again self-performed concrete work on this job was overseeing the first footing pour. Almost exactly one year later, on Dec. 19, 2007, the contractor topped out the project.

Both the 12-story tower that incorporates the patient and procedure rooms, as well as the one-story central energy plant, have been designed and built to accommodate possible future expansion. Plus, with the surrounding acreage, “They’ve got room for whatever they want to do,” says Angel Colon, project manager.

Site permitting and extensive wetlands mitigation were two areas of focus early on in the project.

Currently, the building’s interiors are being framed out, and Robins & Morton’s experience building replacement hospitals is evident. Each of the emerging spaces whether they be the main surgery room or the pharmacy will require a particular attention to detail from the numerous subs working on the job.

Since wayfinding in a hospital built or unbuilt can be a problem, Robins & Morton uses an extensive and detailed labeling system to keep contractors straight. Precise names of the various rooms are spray painted onto the floor of each space, either in the middle of the room or with an arrow graphic at the room’s entrance. Directions illustrated with stencilled, spray-painted graphics show how doors will open. Altogether, the effect makes the emerging project feel like a living/breathing set of blueprints.

The labels are necessary due to the lack of repetition from floor-to-floor, especially on the lower floors, Colon says.

Bowes says they are focusing on the major remaining challenge.

“The biggest issue is the equipment, bar none,” Bowes says. “We do hospitals all the time. The biggest challenge is getting that equipment especially knowing how much will be relocated. It adds another dimension.” He estimates that about 50% of the hospital’s equipment will be relocated.

Both projects are scheduled for completion around August 2009.