Keys to Success: Inova Women’s Hospital and Inova Children’s Hospital

The opening of the Inova Women’s Hospital and Inova Children’s Hospital marks the completion of another phase in Inova Health System’s multi-year effort to ensure that its Fairfax Medical Campus, in Fairfax, Virginia, remains a destination for world-class patient care, education and research. Clark partnered with Inova Health System and architect Wilmot Sanz to deliver the two hospitals, which share a 665,000-square-foot building and offer new and specialized care to area residents.

The Inova Women’s Hospital is the first of its kind in the Washington, D.C., area and features all-private patient rooms, operating rooms dedicated to women’s surgical procedures and a High Risk Perinatal Unit. The hospital’s acute care floors are grouped into complementary specialties to improve efficiency and foster collaboration.

The Inova Children’s Hospital, which features its own dedicated entrance, has 116 private patient rooms, a 108-bassinet level IV neonatal intensive care unit and Northern Virginia’s only pediatric intensive care unit. A rehabilitation room offers therapy services that meet child-specific needs, while multiple age-specific playrooms allow patients and their families respite from the medical environment.

Clark led a construction team that was committed to delivering the hospital on an accelerated schedule to allow Inova to open the facility for patient care at the earliest possible date. Despite obstacles that included historic winter weather and the default of a prime subcontractor during peak construction, the team kept the project on track and allowed Inova Health System to open the facility six weeks earlier than anticipated. The team’s success included the following keys:

We Got Lean
Following the principles of Lean construction, the team, including representatives from every subcontractor, boiled the project down to a single sheet of paper. From this exercise, they knew precisely what was occurring on every facet of the project at any given moment. This intense focus on schedule kept the project on track and was the catalyst to early activation.

Significant Self-Perform
Clark companies self-performed support-of-excavation, cast-in-place concrete and healthcare technology systems work on the hospital. The addition of Clark Foundations, Clark Concrete and S2N Technology Group to the team provided Inova with greater schedule and quality certainty.

Focus on Quality
The project team held multiple coordination meetings for every definable feature of work on the project. This meticulous process proved to be a significant asset in identifying and resolving issues before they arose on site, saving untold time and money.

Source: Clark Construction.