ASHE Announces 2013 Winners of Vista Awards

CHICAGO, Ill. — Team members who worked together to overcome challenges in three hospital projects were recently named winners of the Vista Awards. The awards, presented by the American Society for Healthcare Engineering, recognize the importance of teamwork in creating an optimal healthcare physical environment. The winning teams showed a unity of purpose that helped the projects succeed from pre-planning to implementation.

The winners of the 2013 Vista Awards are the teams involved with the new patient tower at MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup, Wash.; the renovation of the specialty surgical care unit at John C. Lincoln North Mountain Hospital in Phoenix, Ariz. and the Swedish Issaquah Central Utility Plant in Issaquah, Wash. The projects won in the categories of best new construction, renovation and infrastructure, respectively.

New Construction: MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital
The team working on the new patient care tower at MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital faced plenty of challenges, including a city zoning height limit, an aggressive time schedule, no budget contingency, extreme site conditions and an electrical fire in the starter panel of a chiller (the fire was quickly discovered and damage was limited). The project team included Good Sam Design Collaborative, a joint venture of Clark/Kjos Architects and GBJ Architecture; Skanska USA; CDi Engineers and Sparling.

Renovation: John C. Lincoln North Mountain Hospital
The team working to renovate the third floor of John C. Lincoln North Mountain Hospital had to meet a very tight time frame: designing and constructing a new unit within a 10-month window to serve the community during the high-patient volume winter season. To minimize noise for post-surgery patients on the floor above construction, the team created a plan including noise reduction kits (radios with ear buds, ear plugs and an explanation of how the hospital was growing) and hourly construction breaks for quiet time. The project team included Orcutt Winslow, DPR Construction and CCRD Partners.

Infrastructure: Swedish Issaquah central utility plant
The team working on the Swedish Issaquah central utility plant was focused on being energy efficient without sacrificing the overall corporate mission of improving health and well-being of each person they serve. The team assigned a full-time energy engineer to be the “energy watchdog” for the project and worked closely with a third-party commissioning authority. Similar hospitals in the Pacific Northwest have energy use intensity of 250,000 BTUs per square foot annually, according to the hospital. The goal for Swedish Issaquah was 150,000 BTUs per square foot annually, and utility data indicate that the hospital is performing even better than the goal. The project team included CollinsWoerman, Sellen Construction Company, CDi Engineers and Sparling.

For more information, visit www.ashe.org.