Hospital tower opens
Quick action of FM staff accelerates completion of University Hospital Expansion project
The University Hospital Expansion project was completed more than a month in advance with significant adjustments to the building design thanks to the forward-thinking and collaborative work of multiple Facilities Management teams, consultants, contractors and UVA Health officials.
“It’s an amazing story,” said Capital Construction & Renovations Senior Supervisory Construction Administration Manager Chris Hoy of the project’s completion, which included reworking systems to allow for the isolation of COVID-19 patients. “Six years of relationship and trust building on the University Hospital Expansion project allowed us to…do in 19 days what would have taken six months to accomplish through normal design, bid and build strategies. Lives will be saved.”
Last week, an additional two floors opened in the new tower, providing 56 negative-pressure rooms and 28 neutral rooms intended to serve isolated COVID-19 patients. The original design included plans for only nine rooms to be negative pressure, which prevents air from escaping a room and potentially spreading the virus.
In early March, the project team – which includes Hoy, CC&R Senior Construction Administration Manager Chris Pouncey, Contractor Skanska and Designer Perkins and Will – started brainstorming ways to convert additional rooms to negative pressure and accelerate the project completion, allowing for the floors to open more than a month earlier than previously scheduled. In consultation with UVA Health officials and UVA executive leadership, the team moved forward with plans to redesign a part of the building’s air system as well as obtain new rooftop fans that allow for large areas of the building to be converted to negative pressure as needed.
In addition to the project team’s efforts, a group of Facilities Management engineers, including Health System Physical Plant Associate Director Will Schnorr, Energy &Utilities Senior Process Engineer Paul Stevens and Office for Sustainability Energy and Sustainability Engineer Keith Poeppel, determined ways to adjust additional rooms on the third and fourth floors to negative pressure by adjusting airflows in each patient room and the surrounding areas and utilizing the rooftop fans.
“Every decision that has been made has been made around caring for the patient and protecting the staff,” Hoy said of the conversion to negative pressure rooms, which helps ensure staff working in the hospital are not exposed to the virus.
These project adjustments would not have been possible without the support of multiple groups, according to Hoy, including the University Building Official team, the Virginia State Fire Marshal’s Office, HSPP staff, Facilities Management leadership and UVA Health officials.
“This is a project that could have taken six months to design and build… but there comes a time when you hear the words ‘World Pandemic Event’ when the norm doesn’t work anymore,” Hoy said. “It has been amazing the support and the confidence people have put into us.”
HSPP staff worked closely with the project team to ensure a smooth transition into the new space, according to Hoy. HSPP Zone 1 maintenance and management teams worked alongside the team to receive the new spaces and equipment; reviewing and learning the new systems, making recommendations for operational improvements and confirming system operation through the Building Automation System. HSPP Renovations trades staff assisted in accelerating move-in by providing electrical support for new equipment, equipment move support and accessory fabrication, as well as extensive signage.
“We couldn’t have a normal hand-off process,” Hoy said of the transition of the space from the construction team to the HSPP maintenance team. “The hand-off from construction to maintenance was almost immediate, one minute to the next. There was a lot of trust involved. I think the FM family has done a good job of staying more connected than ever.”
Jane Centofante
Communications senior generalist
UVA Facilities Management
(434) 982-5846
janecentofante@virginia.edu