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SEPTEMBER 2017 \ BUILDING DIALOGUE \ 61
F unctioning as a hospital first and a con-
struction site second has become a mas-
tered art form at the 100-year-old Swedish
Medical Center in Englewood. An acute
care hospital with 368 licensed beds, Swedish cares
for more than 200,000 patients with a team of 2,000
employees, 500 volunteers and more than 1,300 phy-
sicians.
As one can imagine, this leads to a significant
amount of foot and vehicular traffic. However, that has
not slowed down the ongoing construction activity. The
process tomanage the planning and development phase
for a new project typically averages 11 to 12 months before
funding occurs.
“There is a tremendous amount of thought and discussion prior to an
investment,” stated Marc Brisebois, senior constructionmanager for HCA
Design & Construction Group, responsible for overseeing all HCA facili-
ties in the Denver area. “Our in-house planning department and capital
asset management team work closely with the Swedish staff to under-
stand the business needs. It’s my responsibility to ensure a qualified and
experienced team can provide viable solutions for a 100-year-old campus
with infrastructure dating back to the 1920s, 1950s and 1960s.” The recent-
ly completed projects were the patient tower expansion to add a ninth
and 10th floor, the fourth-floor renovation, construction of a Critical Care
Unit lobby, a chiller replacement and replacement of the emergency
power system in the existing central utility plant.
Julie Frazier, senior health care manager for Perkins+Will Architecture,
led the design team through the process of surveying existing conditions
and evaluating Swedish’s operating procedures to complete a thorough
due diligence prior to the beginning of construction work. When asked
about unique challenges Frazier replied, “This campus has space con-
straints which narrow down the options and considerations. Patient flow
is a big component of our work and we studied solutions to minimize
cross traffic and improve wayfinding.”
As a leader in the field of neurology and neurosciences and the treat-
ment of stroke, Swedish captured the opportunity through this project to
further its brand expertise in the neurology field by creating new critical
care beds andmedical surgical beds, as well as adding advanced imaging
capabilities.
“There is never a good time to do construction work in a top-perform-
ing hospital,” Brisebois said. “The team has to be very customer-orient-
ed and remember we’re a hospital first and construction site second.”
In March 2015, JE Dunn Construction began construction of the vertical
expansion on the patient tower, which added two floors and a rooftop
mechanical room. Orchestrating the on-site construction activity for the
Diane M. Miller
Senior Busi-
ness Devel-
opment
Director, JE
Dunn Con-
struction