ACHA Health Care Facility Tours

Tour 1 - UCSF Mission Bay

This new hospital will anchor a major district of San Francisco and serve as a symbol of healing and sustainability in the city and beyond. Woven into the urban fabric that makes San Francisco one of the world's most livable places, it is simultaneously a hospital for children, women, and cancer patients; a university; and a place of work, science, and medicine.

This new medical center which will provide a home for the UCSF Children's Hospital, the UCSF Women's Health Center at Mission Bay, and the UCSF Cancer Center at Mission Bay. Each of the three facilities occupies its own wing, with a distinct identity and an entry designed to welcome its particular audience: for instance, a kaleidoscope of color enlivens the entrance to the children's hospital.

Sustainable strategies weave seamlessly through the design, creating an environment that heals the patient and the planet. The design team is undertaking an unprecedented scientific analysis of materials to screen out toxic or unsustainably manufactured materials in all patient rooms. The floors have been configured to allow daylight and views into most working stations. Green roofs reduce stormwater runoff, insulate the building to minimize energy requirements, and avoid the "heat island" effect, helping to keep our urban environment cool. At the scale of the city, water conservation measures under consideration include collecting rainwater and reusing it on site for irrigation. The medical center is targeted to use 50% less power than the average U.S. hospital, making it among the top performers in California.

Throughout, opportunities for patients, staff and visitors to commune with nature abound. Glazed elevations with open terraces, bridges, views, and gardens create a tapestry of forms, suggesting the interdependence of nature and science. Connections among interior spaces are plentiful, with an abundance of light, fresh air, and landscaping to ensure a healthy and nurturing environment.

Tour 2 - Stanford Medicine Outpatient Center

The designs for the Stanford Medicine Outpatient Center reused a former dot-com office complex and adapted it to serve as a world-class outpatient care center. Phase One opened three of the four existing buildings which are now home for seven outpatient centers, including Orthopedics, Imaging, Pain Management, Ambulatory Surgery, and a Sleep Disorders Clinic, the largest academic sleep center in the U.S.

The Stanford Medicine Outpatient Center is comprised of a series of Centers of Excellence clinics, including Dermatology, Digestive Health, Imaging, Physical Therapy, Orthopedic Surgery & Sports Medicine, Pain Management and the Sleep Medicine Center.

Ambulatory care typically engages patients for brief periods of time, yet that experience can often have long-lasting impacts, making clearly understood access and concise wayfinding a necessity. To this end, the client and design team embarked on a value-stream mapping process to evaluate the current state of operations and create a more patient-centric healthcare delivery model. Stantec's design addressed the primary need for a streamlined patient registration process and navigable wayfinding with distinct staff and patient flows through the following:

Self-registration kiosks, equipped with EPIC technology accommodate individualized wayfinding and facilitate patients' access to care.
Clinic entries and waiting areas, organized along a single-loaded concourse on the exterior, glazed wall, provide views of the healing gardens and filter in daylight, enhancing visitor orientation and wayfinding.
Exam and procedure rooms along the outward facing facades of the campus enjoy vistas of the surrounding neighborhood and hills.
Transoms and clerestory windows draw abundant natural light from the perimeter into the staff workspaces and diagnostic imaging areas that occupy the core of the floorplate.
The customer-facing registration is separated from the main patient circulation enabling staff to serve visitors in a professional environment and access staff support and administrative areas just a few steps away.

Tour 3 - Kaiser Oakland

Kaiser Permanente is nearing completion of the Phase 2 portion of the campus replacement project for the Oakland Medical Center. Relocating and expanding with over 700,000 square feet of clinical and inpatient facilities, the replacement project will bring an additional 1200 stall parking garage, state-of-the-art Central Utility plant, Specialty Medical Office Building, and 315 bed nursing tower onto a 9 acre urban site. While located directly across the street from the original 1950's hospital, this project brings both a new front door to one of Kaiser Permanente's flagship facilities, and a reinforced commitment to serve the community on one of the originating Kaiser campuses.

Scheduled to open in July, 2014, the OAC team is challenging the traditional processes to meet this schedule by utilizing a combination of Lean construction methodology, advanced Virtual Design + Construction tools, and an expansive and integrated Big Room approach.

Tour 4 - Sutter Eden Medical Center

Tour the recently opened Sutter Health Next Generation Healthcare Project. Sutter Health Eden Medical Center, Castro Valley, California replaces the ageing and seismically non-compliant 178 bed facility with state of the art healthcare processes, technology and design. Utilizing Lean Design and Construction techniques thru an Integrated Project Delivery method and virtual Building Information Modeling there were no compromises to the Sutter Health business goals. Clinical process and technology improvements for the next generation initiatives were achieved with zero scope reductions. The 130 bed 235,000 square foot acute care hospital and adjacent 80,000 square foot clinic building demonstrate Sutter Health's mission to continuously improve the quality of healthcare services valued by patients, staff and families.

Tour 5 - John Muir Medical Center (New Tower)

The John Muir Medical Center project consisted of 400,000 square feet of new construction that added a five-story, 242- bed tower, underground loading dock, and a Central Utility Plant to the medical center's Walnut Creek campus.

Working in close proximity to John Muir Medical Center, Walnut Creek's existing operations were a major project challenge. To allow for the new tower, portions of the existing hospital were demolished to enable 32 tie-in points between the new and existing structures. New structural members were slotted through the operating medical facility, which required uncovering the existing structure to interlock those members. Portions of the new addition that were not built within the demolished space were built within six inches of the existing hospital and connected to the old facility with expansion joints. Early preconstruction efforts provided time to integrate 3D modeling to maximize efficiency and effectiveness of the small floor to floor spacing due to the existing structure having 14 foot floor to floor spacing, rather than the standard 16 foot minimum clearance.

The detailed logistical coordination is highly visible in areas such as the breakthrough/tie-in areas, but constant behind the scenes preplanning and collaboration with the project team ensured the success of the project. Clark Construction worked closely with John Muir in the management of owner supplied medical equipment, as well as management of milestones to release future areas such as the kitchen and materials management, to ensure that the overall completion date was met. The preconstruction effort allowed Clark Construction to preplan site logistics such as the flight path of emergency heliport transportation during steel erection by meeting with the FAA and John Muir to ensure that plans were in place to eliminate the potential impacts.