The Riley Children’s Maternity & Newborn Health Center was an extremely challenging renovation of an existing hospital tower at one of the top-ranked pediatric hospitals in the country. Proactive communication and collaboration along with a focus on accuracy and preparation, with a “measure twice, cut once” approach, helped make the complicated installation easier.
ERMCO was part of the design-assist construction team, providing electrical, systems, temperature control/building automation, and medium voltage services.
ERMCO project team members had the opportunity to share stories and answer questions recently as part of an all-employee ERMCO Chat. The ERMCO Chat program is part of ERMCO’s vision to continually improve our delivery practices on all projects.
In this post, we’re sharing some of the discussion related to design-assist team participation and the value ERMCO can provide as the client’s one champion for electrical, systems, and automation.
AS PART OF THE DESIGN-ASSIST TEAM, HOW WAS ERMCO ABLE TO ADD VALUE DURING DESIGN? Dave Kessler, Account Manager: I was involved two years prior to construction. We had weekly meetings with the owner, architects and engineers. We discussed their current facility issues, including issues related to maintenance. End users had the opportunity to give input and tell us what they wanted, or didn’t want, in their new building. This helped us develop construction documents that reflected the owner’s wants and needs for their future facility. In the end, the owner and their facilities team definitely got what they wanted.
Abe Hundt, VDC Team Leader: When it comes to fabrication, we used the room-in-a-box approach and we built mock ups. Each standard patient room received one box with all electrical rough-in, including power, data, and nurse call. Prior to shipping the boxes to the site, each type of room was first set up as a mock-up room. This let us get input from the end users who would be working and spending time in these rooms. Field staff was also able to provide feedback and fine-tune box contents to streamline installation. We were able to make changes during design, rather than during construction, that would make installation easier and make the spaces better for the users.
ERMCO CAN BE A FULL-SERVICE RESOURCE FOR OUR CLIENTS. IN ADDITION TO ELECTRICAL, WHAT OTHER SERVICES DID ERMCO PROVIDE ON THIS PROJECT?
Jon Flanary, Systems Account Manager: ERMCO worked with SWC and Philips to provide and install all low voltage systems. We pulled fiber, single mode and multimode, and redundant pathways. We built out the data closets and handled the paging speakers. We pulled the nurse call cabling and the patient monitoring cabling. We approached our involvement as collaboratively as possible. The ERMCO Systems Foreman and I walked the job every two weeks with our partners, with the general contractor Messer Construction, and with IU Health staff, to make sure that when it's handed off, it's exactly the way they want it.
Tom Davis, Director of Integrated Services: ERMCO installed the temperature control system for Siemens, who was the temperature control contractor. We carried a lot of the responsibility to get the job done and get it done correctly. We worked in phases to keep equipment up and running. Temperature control drawings are not always as well detailed as they could be, which can make installation challenging. ERMCO has a good team with people capable of accurately interpreting drawings and able to assess situations based on years of experience. We make sure we get it right.
Dave Kessler: We have a big machine here, with systems, controls, medium voltage, and maintenance services as well as support services, including accounting, estimating, purchasing, VDC, and fabrication.
It's definitely a collaborative effort. Jon Flanary and I are talking on a daily basis. The foremen in the field are talking daily at huddle meetings. Abe and I are talking about the model. We’re asking each other a lot of questions and checking schedules to make sure we are in sync. It's one big team effort that offers a lot of efficiencies not just within ERMCO but for our clients and partners too.
CLICK HERE for part one of this blog series to learn about some of the project challenges, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and why this was a special project for our staff.
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