Construction Management of Healthcare Projects

Construction Management of Healthcare Projects, by Sanjiv Gokhale and Thomas C. Gormley, McGraw Hill 2014As the type of reference book an architect or healthcare executive might want to consult, this volume is designed to take the reader through design, construction, and occupancy of all the major healthcare building projects – from the finances and cost estimates, through medical requirements and workforce needs. 

What I was hoping to find was a discussion of recent lean healthcare design initiatives like the ones promoted by LeanHealthcare West, Cindy Jimmerson CEO, that optimize patient care and throughput while injecting team recommendations to consolidate and slenderize basic design constructs.  (See Blue Heron Journal  "Healing Healthcare," etc ).  Although this book does not specifically take on these breakthrough lean projects, it does cover about IPD, or Integrated Project Delivery and LPDS, the Lean Product Delivery System.  Lean design/construction is defined as the continuous process of eliminating waste, meeting or exceeding all customer requirements, focusing on the entire value stream, and pursuing perfection in the execution of a constructed project.  In this particular healthcare area, waste is defined as:

·       Overproduction

·       Waiting

·       Unnecessary transport

·       Over-processing

·       Excess inventory

·       Unnecessary movement

·       Defects and rework

·       Not using employee talent

·       Environment/energy

A second critical topic area, information technology, is covered in its basics later in this book.  Here the authors urge inclusion of medical technology in initial design work, all the way through equipment procurement and operation.  It’s a slightly different technology approach than what we might see in manufacturing, but considering what the authors identify as rapid medical technology advancement, it clearly requires consideration at the beginning of project development.  Chapter 15, “The Future of Healthcare Construction,” starting with a startling view into the archeological finds of earliest hospital design in Mesopotamia and 9the century AD Sri Lanka, gives the reader a great view to a controversial future filled with change.