Healthy activity: Carolinas HealthCare System expansions help contractors weather downturn

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Jeff Whitten, senior vice president of Starr Electric, said he is glad to see that health care construction has picked up in the past six to eight months.

The Greensboro-based electrical contractor, which has its largest office in Charlotte, gets about 60 percent of its revenues from health care projects.

Carolinas HealthCare System, one of Starr’s major clients for about three decades, recently finished up five projects valued at nearly $2 million. CHS has another 11 projects ongoing with a total tab of $169.5 million.

Among the 11 – and by far the largest – is the $110.6 million, multiphase transformation of Carolinas Medical Center-Pineville from a satellite facility into a tertiary hospital.

CHS Management Company President Carol Lovin calls it the largest capital project and expansion project CHS has ever done. The first phase, completed in January 2010, was valued at $42.5 million.

“Our campus uptown can’t serve everyone, and so we are taking services closer to the communities we serve,” Lovin said.

Whitten said that during the recession Starr did smaller projects for CHS, such as repairs, maintenance and equipment upgrades, “that got us by.”

The company provided services for the $17 million CMC-Kannapolis, a freestanding emergency room facility that opened last year. It is working on other major projects, including the soon-to-open $32.2-million CMC-Levine Cancer Institute, the $484,000 radiology renovation at CMC-Union and the $20.4-million CMC-Northeast central energy plant.

Starr works as a subcontractor, bidding jobs through a general contractor.

“CHS is conscientious about the money it spends and how they spend it,” Whitten said. “But the jobs have rigid requirements, so they consider a company’s health care resume, their insurance capacity and bonding capabilities, too.”

Health care projects – whether new buildings or renovations – require special expertise.

“Rules regarding hospitals are very specific, like the way equipment is grounded or how the wiring is handled,” Whitten said. “And in existing facilities, they are very particular about cleanliness and sterilization. There are rules about how you take out ceiling tiles in an operating room. There are even rules about what you can ask and talk about because of HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).”

When the second phase of CMC-Pineville is completed at year’s end – finishing the project about five years since it began – it will be enlarged from a 120-bed hospital to one with 206 and an expanded array of services and specialties. About 335,000 square feet will be added. Another 50,000 square feet will be renovated. Some 26 acres of the site has had to be reworked.

All this was completed within and adjacent to a 24-7 functioning hospital that has remained open the entire time. Hospital President Chris Hummer estimates there are 750 to 1,000 people on the site at any given time.

BE&K Building Group, which was acquired and became KBR Building Group during the second phase, was the contractor for both phases; at peak times they and the subs had 400 workers on the site. Electrical and water shutdowns were scheduled for small areas during off hours; only once was electricity for the entire facility shut off, which required a backup generator and months of planning.

Hummer said planning and communication were the keys to maintaining everyone’s safety as well as patient satisfaction. For example, if there was going to be noise nearby, patients were told ahead of time and offered ear plugs. At times, someone did nothing but continually wash and wipe down the area where work was being done. Some work required that certain areas be closed down or walled off.

Another way CHS is bringing health care closer to where patients live is by building new freestanding emergency rooms. These facilities are open around the clock, staffed by emergency room specialists and licensed through an affiliated hospital.

The first one opened at Steele Creek about three years ago, followed by ones in Waxhaw and Kannapolis late last year. Another opened in Huntersville this month. State approval has been received for three others in SouthPark, Harrisburg and at Providence Road at Interstate 485.

Lovin said CHS plans capital projects using a five-year horizon, although plans are updated throughout the year when adjustments are made. Needs are evaluated and prioritized before decisions are made.

“Our underlying principles are access to care, cost and quality,” she said. “It’s not just about bricks and mortar. Our process is to carefully look at projects and evaluate them against our strategy.”