Heery Breaks Ground on Hospital Project in Broward County

ATLANTA, Ga. —  Heery International recently broke ground on a $70-million effort to expand the operating and emergency departments at Broward Health North, as well as replace the hospital’s central plant and give the nine-story patient tower a more modern, iconic look.

Broward Health North, in Deerfield Beach, is part of the four-hospital Broward Health system serving northern Broward County, Florida.

When Broward Health hired Heery as program manager, the hospital system requested Heery use an integrated project delivery-lite approach. In turn, Heery helped the health system select HKS Architects, Inc. and Perkins + Will Architects, as well as Skanska Building USA as construction manager at risk, with the four organizations working together as a team throughout the planning, design and construction phases.

“Our IPD-lite approach allowed our team to focus on meeting Broward Health’s needs in the most cost effective and time efficient way possible,” said Dennis LaGatta, the Heery project executive overseeing the work at Broward Health North. “The creative thought process yielded innovations in our approach to the program as a whole and substantially reduced the construction schedule timeline, which means these new facilities will be operational and supporting the hospital conservatively 12 months earlier than initially projected.”

Re-cladding of the patient tower, originally built in the 1950s, with a glass curtainwall and a metal panel system is the most visible element of this program effort. Seen from Interstate 95, Broward Health North’s new look will help make it a prominent landmark on the northern Broward County skyline. At the same time, it will look at home on the hospital semi-urban campus, which expands over 35 acres with mature trees and landscaping.

The new, expanded 53,000-square-foot operating suite and emergency department expansion will allow the hospital to continue to meet its responsibility to the community as the only level-2 trauma center in the north end of Broward County.

The new emergency department, with 53 treatment spaces, uses a universal design. Each treatment space is identical in room orientation and available medical equipment. A decentralized nursing station model allows for flexible treatment space utilization during peak and non-peak event timeframes. Six new class-C operating rooms will be constructed to let surgeons continue to provide the level of care that has made the Broward Health North a medical destination of choice for the South Florida region.

A new central plant will continue to give life to a facility that has served its community for many years as the hospital’s connection point for vital building services. The new plant will also house the hospitals back-up generator system which will allow for full facility operation during a major power outage event.

Rendering courtesy of HKS.