Construction Milestone Celebrated at North Shore Medical Center in Salem, Mass.

BOSTON, Mass. – A construction milestone has been reached for the 223,000-square-foot expansion and renovation project on the Salem, Massachusetts campus of North Shore Medical Center, a community hospital in the Partners HealthCare system.
The $207-million project includes a new 111,600-square-foot building for the emergency department and a family centered medical/surgical inpatient unit, as well as a 111,100-square-foot renovation of the former Spaulding North Shore building to expand NSMC’s behavioral health services for children, adolescents, adults and seniors. A topping-off ceremony to mark the completion of the structural steel framing of the new building was recently held. The project is expected to be occupied by fall 2019 and will provide a deeper level of emergency, specialty, inpatient and mental healthcare to the growing North Shore community.

With the goal of improving care and coordination across a wide spectrum of health services, the project consolidates NSMC’s hospital-based medical, surgical and behavioral health services on its Salem Hospital campus to create a robust regional facility for inpatient and emergency care. The new building includes a new 54,000-square-foot ED with dedicated areas for adult and pediatric care, separate treatment space for adult behavioral health patients and 24 new private inpatient rooms on a medical/surgical floor with an additional floor shelled-out for future medical/surgical expansion. The renovated building provides 90 behavioral health beds to serve children, adolescents, adults and seniors, increasing NSMC’s mental health treatment capacity by 36 percent and adding 24 much-needed beds to the community. Similar to the medical/surgical space, there will be an additional floor shelled-out to allow for future growth. Both buildings are targeting LEED Silver certification.

The NSMC Salem campus consolidation project presented many design challenges related to the complex site and building configuration, with limited available space for new construction. Erected between three existing structures, the new building was strategically located to connect to the existing hospital, as well as to the renovated behavioral health building, enabling the design team to maximize the square footage of the new ED on level one of both the new and renovated buildings. The design located the mechanical systems on a double-height second floor of the new building, a unique placement that provides easier routing and access for maintenance, eliminates unsightly rooftop equipment and creates user-friendly connections to the existing building. It also ensures that the best natural lighting is reserved for hospital patients and families. To visually unify the buildings and add interest to the façade, the design integrated exterior cladding with pre-cast concrete panels.

The new behavioral health center, which will be named in honor of donor and longtime Marblehead, Massachusetts resident Arthur J. Epstein, provides private and semi-private patient rooms on dedicated floors for pediatric, geriatric and adult psychiatric units. The pediatric unit is zoned by age, with localized activity and lounge areas for each age group. The geriatric unit will support patients with both psychiatric and significant medical needs, a common presentation with this patient population. The interior palette throughout the center creates a soothing and calming environment, with colors and textures for the geriatric unit chosen specifically for those patients in mind. Each floor provides a centralized provider station, group activity rooms and a dining area for patients. The design also includes provisions for a future rooftop garden.

NSMC’s new ED offers a centralized check-in and six treatment pods – each comprised of eight to 10 private treatment rooms – in a “main street”-style floorplan, all color-coded and U-shaped for easy wayfinding. There are individual pods dedicated for pediatrics, behavioral health and observation and three pods designated for adult treatment (one featuring three additional trauma rooms). In a departure from traditional ED design, all the medical treatment rooms are universally designed to maximize flexibility and provide greater operational efficiency at times when fewer pods are needed. All behavioral health patients will be triaged and admitted through the ED, with two designated behavioral health treatment rooms within the pediatric pod in addition to the adult behavioral health pod. Families and visitors to inpatient behavioral health patients will be welcomed through a dedicated entrance, with convenient parking, adjacent to the ED.

The NSMC project team includes:

• Architect: Shepley Bulfinch
• General Contractor/Construction Manager: Walsh Brothers, Inc.
• Structural: McNamara Salvia
• Mechanical/Electrical/Plumbing/Fire Protection: Engineered Solutions, Inc.
• Civil/Landscape: VHB
• Geotechnical Engineer: McPhail Associates, LLC
• Low Voltage/Security/Nurse Call: Bard, Rao + Athanas Consulting Engineers, LLC
• Code and Life Safety: Code Red Consultants
• Specifications: Kalin Associates, Inc.
• Lighting Design: Bard, Rao + Athanas Consulting Engineers, LLC
• LEED Consultant: Richard Moore Environmental Consulting
• Commissioning Agent: WSP

Rendering courtesy of Shepley Bulfinch.