Architects, Engineers and Construction Team Chosen for The New Hospital

November 2007

ARCHITECTS:

After an exhaustive nationwide search, an award-winning architectural firm with extensive healthcare experience has been named to design the new OMHS hospital facility. Hammel, Green and Abrahamson (HGA), a nationally recognized leader in patient centered hospital design, was selected from a large field of top architectural firms considered by the OMHS Board.

With offices in three states and more than 500 professionals, HGA is one of the 15 largest architectural/engineering firms in the U.S.  HGA brings a unique perspective to hospital development. Their design process emphasizes involvement not only of OMHS physicians and staff but also patients. HGA focuses on creating patient-centered facilities that are flexible, efficient and cost-effective. The goals are to increase patient satisfaction, improve staff and family communications and raise staff satisfaction and retention.  A large team of planners, designers, architects, engineers and specialists will work hand in hand with OMHS to design a facility that addresses the many needs of patients in our community.

The St. Louis-based Lawrence Group will study and make recommendations for the most appropriate continued use of the Parrish campus.  The Lawrence Group will help us identify non-clinical and support services that could conintue operating at our Parrish Avenue location.  This will assist us in minimizing construction and operational costs at the Pleasant Valley facility, while making good use of our existing structures.

ENGINEERS:

Engineers selected for OMHS development team

Smith Seckman Reid, Inc. has been officially selected to serve as the engineer for the new hospital.  SSR is a 470-person firm with 70 healthcare dedicated staff members in their primary design office.  The addition of the engineering firm will bring over 40 years of healthcare facility design experience to our development team. 

Over 80 percent of SSR's work has been focused in healthcare with successful projects in over 1,000 medical institutions nationwide.  An additional benefit is the specific experience SSR has with greenfield replacement facilities (construction on undeveloped sites).  SSR will be contributing to the integrated team approach with our architects to work together through design challenges to achieve the most cost effective solutions. 

CONSTRUCTION:

Industry Leader Turner Construction Company Chosen

Construction services for the new hospital will be provided by Turner Construction Company.  The teams' vast healthcare construction experience is well-positioned to provide the team of OMHS, HGA (architect) and SSR (engineer) a collaborative and well-executed building experience.  Turner's team includes healthcare expertise consisting of local, regional and national healthcare experts who bring the ability to deliver local market experience, regional healthcare strength and best practices in emerging trends from marquee healthcare institutions around the country.

HGA brings a unique perspective to hospital development. Their design process emphasizes involvement not only of OMHS physicians and staff but also patients. HGA focuses on creating patient-centered facilities that are flexible, efficient and cost-effective. The goals are to increase patient satisfaction, improve staff and family communications and raise staff satisfaction and retention.

A large team of planners, designers, architects, engineers and specialists will work hand in hand with OMHS to design a facility that addresses the many needs of patients in our community.

The “best of the best” ideas

Innovative thinking is a hallmark of HGA. Some ideas they will bring to the OMHS facility include:

• Collaborative approaches that involve the entire community
• Ways that architecture can advance healthcare goals within a set budget
• “Patient experience teams” that will focus on the different needs of different patients
• Green building design that emphasizes energy efficiency and environmental quality
• State-of-the-art telecommunications strategies including voice, data, image and video technologies
• Family focused patient rooms, waiting rooms and food service areas