The Northeast Georgia Rehabilitation Institute, a 62,000-square-foot, two-story rehabilitation hospital in Gainesville, Georgia has opened. The project, which broke ground in March of 2024, is owned in partnership with Northeast Georgia Health System and Lifepoint Rehabilitation, a business unit of Lifepoint Health. The project team included Hoar Construction, Earl Swensson Associates, Lawson Mechanical and Enfinity Engineering.
The first floor of the 40-bed facility houses a therapy gym, day rooms for patients, a full kitchen and dining room and a mock bedroom and kitchen area to be used for life skills training. The second floor includes space for patients with brain injuries, therapy rooms and 12 patient beds. The building also features courtyard space with outdoor therapeutic resources, putting greens, bocce ball courts and basketball courts.
Supplying power to the project site involved bringing out additional generators and temporary heating and AC units to climatize the building and ensure the schedule continued as normal. The team also battled several hurricanes during the fall season, which caused some delays, but ultimately did not disrupt the overall timeline of the project.
Building Information Modeling was implemented for mechanical, electrical and plumbing components. Prefabrication was utilized for the headwall units that went into patient rooms. The headwalls were built onsite in the parking lot before installation, which greatly improved the schedule and saved money for the client.
