An inadvertent meeting of the minds during planning for a 484,000-sq-ft hospital in Dayton, Ohio, turned into an effort that has propelled multitrade prefabrication of hospital components to a new level. In the most ambitious U.S. implementation of the strategy, the construction manager estimates that prefabbing the 178 identical patient rooms and 120 overhead corridor utility racks sliced more than two months from construction and 1% to 2% off the cost of the $152-million building, which is 90% complete.
The first effort is seen as just a beginning. “I want to change the design of hospitals with this process,” says Marty Corrado, project executive for field operations in Skanska USA Building Inc.’s Nashville office. Skanska leads a joint venture with the local Shook Construction to build the 12-story Miami Valley Hospital Southeast Addition. “This is going to revamp the entire [hospital-delivery] process as we know it,” says Corrado.