Build Your Knowledge: Healthcare Construction

For our team, healthcare construction is personal. We understand how the facilities we build can impact patients, healthcare workers, and our community. Healthcare professionals are unsung heroes – working tirelessly to take care of patients and comfort their loved ones. And today, more than ever, the patient experience at the facilities we build can make all the difference in the success of a project.

Through the years, we’ve worked with regional healthcare organizations such as Hershey Medical Center, UPMC, and Geisinger, which has provided our team the experience and medical regulation knowledge needed to excel at these projects.

Learn more about Mowery’s personal approach to healthcare construction in this Build Your Knowledge blog!

What is Healthcare Construction?

Medical facility construction and healthcare construction services are specialized areas of the industry requiring nuanced experience and professional knowledge above and beyond general contractor services. Healthcare general contractors need to be fluent in medical regulations such as Infection Control Risk Assessment (ICRA) and American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE) training, as well as sensitive to the needs of the working professionals and patients at medical centers and healthcare facilities. In healthcare construction, it’s uniquely important to understand work site risks and best practices that differ from typical commercial construction.

For example, when Mowery handled the renovations of the lounges, labs, lobbies, and offices on multiple floors over 13,100 square feet at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, PA, Mowery’s project manager and project superintendent acquired certifications and training from ASHE and ICRE before construction. They also used private routes and elevators to ensure a safe and quiet experience for patients.

What are the Current Healthcare Construction Trends?
As leading design-build healthcare general contractors, Mowery stays current on the latest market trends. Some of the most noteworthy trends that have recently emerged in healthcare construction due to the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic include:

• Space for social distancing – Healthcare facilities have adapted to allow more room for people to move about with new facilities featuring wider hallways and bigger rooms for better social distancing capabilities.
• Flexible layouts / adaptable spaces – Newer room designs will often include medical gas and power outlets in common or flex spaces as well as in the patient rooms. Further, having the ability to change from a private to semi-private room easily or convert a regular room to function as an intensive care unit (ICU) space will become more common as healthcare construction evolves. Additionally, having areas that can easily change from a single bed space to accommodate more beds or change air pressurization for possible shifting isolation needs will be essential at some medical facilities.
• Safer common spaces – Materials are becoming a much more critical consideration as the need for antimicrobial and easily cleaned surfaces become more critical. Hard surfaces like bamboo flooring and antibacterial metals like copper, as well as other synthetic materials that are non-porous and long-lasting, are more common in today’s new construction and renovations.
• Touchless technology – Automation such as technology that prescreens a person’s temperature upon entry and turnstiles for controlling access to facilities and guest/patient flow without human interaction is widely used today due to recent adaptations in the way we interact. Also features such as automatic hand sanitizing stations, faucets, flushing mechanisms, door entry, and lighting are now the norm.
• Better air circulation – Updated HVAC and HEPA filtration systems are certainly a consideration in new construction and renovations. The ability to contain pathogens and easily change how air flows in a given space from a negative flow to a positive flow environment is also a desirable trend.
• Smart building materials –Many healthcare and medical facilities are pursuing efficient and environmentally friendly Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certifications by using smart building materials to provide a return on their renovation and build investment. Also, some smart building materials like UV lighting can enhance the atmosphere as well as increase overall cleanliness in a facility.

What are Mowery’s Capabilities in Healthcare Construction?

We know having a strategically designed, cutting-edge facility is an important part of delivering a personal level of care to our healthcare partners. When Mowery leads the preconstruction and construction of your healthcare facility, trust that our primary goal is to understand patient care needs and the needs of the healthcare workers who take care of them. By asking questions, listening to understand and meeting with stakeholders (including clinicians), we can make decisions that do not sacrifice the patient environment.

Plus, we know technology changes, medical breakthroughs, and an increase in regulations impact health facilities as trends change and needs shift. We have experience building and renovating a variety of medical facilities from laboratories, hospitals, operating rooms, ophthalmology exam rooms and even outpatient surgical centers. Our commitment to always doing the right thing has made us one of the leading medical facility and healthcare construction firms in the region, and our knowledge of medical regulations such as ICRA and ASHE bring value to your project. Healthcare organizations know they can count on Mowery for all of their construction needs.

Learn more about Mowery’s promise to deliver a remarkable construction experience to our clients.

We Are Here for Your Healthcare Construction Needs

At Mowery, we have a proven track record for successful healthcare construction. To learn more about Mowery’s experience in this unique industry, check out a few of the healthcare construction projects our team completed here.

Discover how we can bring your next healthcare construction project to life. Contact us today to discuss your next project – whether it’s a new facility or renovation. We’d love the opportunity to share our experience with you.