NIOSH Supply Chain Project: Psychiatric Hospital – Commercial Design-Build

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Virginia Tech. Center for Innovation in Construction Safety, Health, and Well-being
• Description:
  Overview: The project involved in this case study was the construction of a new psychiatric hospital. There was a large amount of discussion on the front end of the project about how many stories to make the facility. As a mental hospital, there was a group from the medical side that advocated for a one story building for care-giving purposes. The state had recently completed another similar facility however, and had reservations about this option because of how spread out the facility would be. It was decided that a two story facility could be built in which each wing was mirrored on each story, but that three stories would be too many stairs for personnel and patients. The building design was configured with three enclosed outside courtyards. The courtyard walls were pre-cast concrete panels to match the exterior façade of the rest of the building. One difference between the interior courtyard design and the building exterior were larger windows on the exterior allowing more natural light in for patients without access to the courtyards. The diversity of window sizes affected the design solution by reducing panel standardization and resulting in additional panels of varying sizes and increased complexity in panel connections. Context: The purpose of building a new hospital was to replace the aging older facility. The former site for the hospital was more of a campus layout with multiple buildings that were constructed in the early 1950's. Aging buildings and declining enrollment meant that it would be impractical for the hospital to continue maintaining a 60 year old, 24 building campus. The new building's design called for pre-cast concrete panels to be used on the exterior and courtyard walls. The panels were made to be full building height wherever possible in order to reduce the number of truckloads needed for deliveries. Due to the shape of the building, this meant that installation of the panels would have to be sequenced with the erection of the structural steel and it was possible that some panels would have to be installed using blind lifts. The design also featured rooftop HVAC equipment, which the owner wished to have concealed from view. The design team came up with several different alternatives to conceal the HVAC units. Objectives: The new building was designed to be logically laid out to enhance care-giving services for the patients. A two floor layout reduced the number of stairs that patients and hospital personnel would need to climb. Nurse stations and patient rooms were located in a manner to reduce travel times for hospital staff and allow for more time to be spent with patients. Adding in three enclosed courtyards also provides patients with access to the outdoors and natural lighting while allowing the staff to maintain a level of safety and security. The CM decided on using blind lifts to simultaneously set the panels for the smaller two courtyards. This decision was made by balancing cost and scheduling versus safety. The CM felt that blind lifts were common and could be controlled with administrative controls. Delaying the installation of exterior panels until the courtyard was complete would have set the schedule too far back. One option to conceal the HVAC equipment from view was to surround each individual unit with panels that matched the rest of the building's exterior. The owner did not like the looks of this option and preferred to have screens installed along the full perimeter of the roof. Metal sheeting was chosen over louver screens because the louvers would need extra bracing for stability during high winds. A cost-allocation discussion led to the decision to have the screens around the HVAC units instead of along the entire perimeter, in order to save money to use for more interior features. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Case Reports Construction Industry Engineering Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Case Studies Construction Industry Design Criteria Engineering Controls Health Care Facilities
• Publisher:
  Innovation Center for Construction Safety and Health at Virginia Tech
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Case Studies
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-19
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20062027
• Citation:
  Blacksburg, VA: Innovation Center for Construction Safety and Health at Virginia Tech, 2015 May; :1-19
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2015
• Performing Organization:
  Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20090901
• Source Full Name:
  NIOSH supply chain project: psychiatric hospital - commercial design-build
• End Date:
  20150131
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d3cafdae56accf336a4c2f577347a81b63513fc2bbc7cede0b40c19957da2307df406b8ecdf1039db34410459a92da19bb95e7ca77de6565cbb3b3c04c1c5223
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/225351/cdc_225351_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 830.53 KB ]