How Boldt successfully plans for the complexity of hospital expansions while maintaining day-to-day operations
Touchplan is the preferred construction planning software for healthcare and has been used on over 550 hospital and healthcare projects across the country. The Boldt Company (Boldt) utilized Touchplan’s patented planning platform on a previous hospital project for the University of California at San Francisco for the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital Campus. The successful completion of that project led Boldt to select Touchplan as its primary planning software for a multi-million dollar new building with emergency department and trauma center, transport and retail pharmacy services at Children’s Wisconsin Milwaukee campus.
Construction within hospital buildings and new construction on healthcare campuses is delicate and requires detailed planning to maintain the facility’s day-to-day operations while always meeting patient needs.
Staying on schedule is equally as crucial as delays to construction schedules can hold up access to necessary facilities for hospital staff and patients. The size and scope of the Children’s Wisconsin project required Boldt to move away from traditional planning with spreadsheets.
Project Manager Kyle Alcaraz and the Boldt team committed to refining the construction planning process by moving from analog planning with sticky notes to a digital planning platform like Touchplan to complete the emergency department expansion.
“Touchplan was useful in helping everyone on the team take accountability for their part in creating the schedule,” said Alcaraz. “Logging all the information within Touchplan got everyone on the same page while fostering buy-in to the schedule.”
The Children’s Wisconsin project was also a multiphase project run by several project managers with different milestone dates. Organizing all the project managers’ activities within Touchplan made it easier for the team to communicate while keeping the Owner informed of the project’s progress.
Ensuring Smooth Operations
Construction teams working on hospital projects must remain vigilant of the environment around them. Patient and hospital staff safety is always paramount. Daily activities and long-range planning within Touchplan made the Boldt team acutely aware of work that could pose possible challenges to hospital operations.
Alcaraz explained, “With all activities in Touchplan, it was easy to see upcoming work activities that could pose an issue related to the hospital’s operations, such as needing to shut down certain areas. Identifying these issues early within weekly planning meetings using Touchplan allowed us ample time to coordinate with the hospital promptly and avoid costly delays. Planning six and seven weeks out via Touchplan’s look-ahead planning gives us the time to coordinate with the hospital and ensure everyone is comfortable with the work ahead.”
Continuing with Touchplan at Children’s
With the emergency department project complete, Boldt continues with additional construction projects at Children’s Wisconsin Milwaukee campus and uses Touchplan on many of them. Using Touchplan allows the entire construction team to take control of the management of the work while still allowing Boldt’s project managers to confirm that each project team is staying on task.
Alcaraz concludes, “The most valuable part about Touchplan for me is the ability to involve the field in taking ownership of the schedule and having a quick way to check all aspects of the work. There’s a lot of flexibility in using the platform that empowers managers and field workers.”
To see additional examples of Touchplan’s patented planning platform being utilized for hospital construction, visit our website.
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