Sutter Medical Center Castro Valley First to Win Award for Innovative Approach to Building New Hospital

CASTRO VALLEY, Calif., May 4, 2009 - Sutter Medical Center Castro Valley (SMCCV), the new hospital that will replace Eden Medical Center, won the 2008 FIATECH CETI award, presented to the design team in April.

FIATECH is a consortium within the building industry that provides global leadership in the implementation of new methodologies and technologies to deliver the highest value for commercial construction projects. The CETI award recognized the SMCCV project team for its innovative approach and use of technologies to design and plan construction of the new hospital in an accelerated timeframe.

To comply with California legislation requiring that by 2013 every hospital meet construction criteria to withstand a major earthquake, SMCCV has approximately five years to build the new hospital and open its doors for business, two years less than the time it typically takes for a project of this magnitude.

According to Digby Christian, senior project manager for SMCCV, “To drive two years out of the schedule the team had to abandon the conventional concepts of designing and planning, and come together as a wide-ranging, multi-company team involving SMCCV, and the designers and builders, and transform the design and construction process.

“The team is now on track to achieve the 2013 goal and we did it primarily by redesigning the design process itself in a rigorous and unrelenting fashion so that it no longer bears any real resemblance to the traditional process.”

Two key strategies made it possible to shore up the SMCCV construction timeline - and win the FIATECH CETI award. First, with the goal of designing for fabrication, SMCCV assembled all construction trades involved in the project to have them participate in the design process upfront and arrive at the shop drawing stage together. These drawings tell in detail how every element in the building will be fabricated, then located, i.e., steel, concrete, plumbing, air-conditioning, light fixtures, cabinetry, etc.

The second strategy was to have a working design of the hospital in three dimensions, allowing individual contractors to each use their own preferred modeling software and then developing a process to integrate the various renderings that ensures that what is being designed is actually what will be built on schedule, within budget and without any last minute compromises on the finished product.

“While this concept has been discussed for the last few years within the industry and parts of this new approach have been implemented in other projects, no building construction project has carried out this concept as broadly and deeply for a project as complex as SMCCV,” added Christian..

“On the Sutter Medical Center Castro Valley project we have designed for fabrication a building that has been fully reviewed for pricing and constructability before construction ever starts. We are breaking new ground ahead of any other project in the country in the way such projects are handled.”

About Sutter Medical Center Castro Valley
Sutter Health will fund the development and construction of this state-of-the-art hospital on the Eden Medical Center campus in Castro Valley. This is the largest investment for a healthcare facility in central Alameda County, totaling nearly $400 million, to meet the state’s stringent earthquake safety mandate. Sutter Health’s investment includes the construction of the new hospital, medical office building, campus improvements and the deconstruction of the old hospital once services are transferred to the new facility. The existing medical center will remain open during construction, with minimal disruption to services. Sutter Health has committed to the continuation of essential health care services in the new hospital, including the Emergency Department, Trauma Center, Neuroscience Center, maternity and other medical and surgical care.

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Contact
Cassandra Phelps
Project Communications Director
Sutter Medical Center Castro Valley
(510) 305-6262 - cell
Phelpsc1@sutterhealth.org