Sutter Health, a pioneer in integrated project delivery, will soon release a revamped relational-contract form. The Sacramento-based non-profit healthcare system, in the midst of a $5.5-billion capital program, is culling lessons learned from its IPD projects to improve the form, making it more user-friendly. The form will also integrate building information modeling into the main agreement.
The basic underlying philosophy of the integrated form of agreement (IFOA) will stay the same, says Howard W. Ashcraft, a partner in Hanson Bridgett LLP, San Francisco, which is Sutter's outside counsel. “The core theory is for a fully integrated and lean team.”