Santa Clara's Way: County Requires Projects to Use Federal Program

A 244,000-sq.-ft. project at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center utilizes a county protocol that places quality-control issues in the hands of the construction manager and general contractor. The three-phase system is said to provide proactive prevention instead of reactive inspection.

By Don Lipper

The Santa Clara Valley Medical Center's new $143-million Specialty Center in San Jose is signaling a new way construction projects are managed in Santa Clara County.

Exterior materials for the Specialty Center include precast concrete panels, a glass curtain wall and aluminum panel cladding similar to the materials of the main hospital. The glass walls of the lobby, public corridors and clinic waiting spaces will provide views out to the campus plaza and to the mountains beyond (rendering courtesy of Anshen + Allen).

The project required all capital bond projects to use a management protocol designed by the U.S. Navy Facilities Engineering Command and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers called the "Construction Quality Control Management" program.

The project's general contractor is the San Francisco office of based McCarthy Building Cos. The construction manager is the San Jose office office of Turner Construction.

"This system places quality control in the hands of the contractor," said Bob Garcia, senior project manager for Turner Construction. "With preplanning, we put quality into the project and this methodology requires lots of preplanning meetings to provide proactive prevention vs. reactive inspection. It builds it right the first time."

The program uses "definable features of work (DFOW)" requirements that control such tasks as excavation, reinforcing bar installation and concrete foundations.

There are three phases of control. In the preparatory phase, all involved parties review and approve submittals; determine testing requirements; review all RFIs, shop drawings, ASIs or bulletins relating to the specific DFOW; and then finally review the materials and procedures required for the task.

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"This allows everyone to discover during this planning phase anything they have overlooked, whether it is a design or execution issue," said Garcia.

During the initial phase, the installation crew is briefed so that everyone is on the same page before the work is installed.

And the follow-up phase is performed during the installation of the work daily or as needed.

Garcia said he believes such an approach reduces the cost for tear-out, replacement and possible claims. Because the work is done correctly, the contractor benefits from earlier completion and reduced overhead costs.

"This turns normal quality control on its head," Garcia added. "It puts it at the head of production instead of the back end where you have to fix it. This has been a real education and turned me into real believer that this program could work."

The new Specialty Center recently topped-out steel frame construction right on schedule, putting the building on track for completion in summer 2008. The five-story (plus basement), 244,000-sq.-ft. building will include outpatient clinics, special procedure areas, diagnostic services and physicians' offices. It will replace and consolidate the existing outpatient facility.

Approximately 300 staff will be assigned to the VSC, including 80 physicians. The building is designed to manage more than 200,000 clinic and special-procedure patient visits per year.

The Specialty Center recently topped-out steel frame construction right on schedule, putting the building on track for completion in summer 2008. The five-story (plus basement), 244,000-sq.-ft. building will include outpatient clinics, special procedure areas, diagnostic services and physicians' offices. (photo courtesy of Anshen + Allen).

"This compact arrangement of buildings around the campus core is designed to enhance the patient experience by providing a clear, easily understood arrival experience and by minimizing patient travel distances during treatment," said design principal Peter Jay Schlosser with Anshen + Allen Architects in San Francisco.

Robin Roche, director of ambulatory and community health services for the Santa Clara Valley Health and Hospital System, added, "In deciding how to organize the facility, we spent a lot of time looking at major outpatient facilities for the best possible way to create patient flow as opposed to some labyrinth."

The new specialty building is designed with an "on-stage" area where patients move through their tightly clustered specialty areas and an "off-stage" where staff and materials circulate.

Exterior materials include precast concrete panels, glass curtain wall and aluminum panel cladding similar to the materials of the main hospital. The glass walls of the lobby, public corridors and clinic waiting spaces will provide views out to the campus plaza and to the mountains beyond.

The builders will use exterior sunshades, interior light-shelves and interior glazing as the expansive exterior glass walls flood the interior of the building with natural light while also controlling heat and glare within.

"When you come to a good-looking building, it makes you feel that you are important and getting good health care," Garcia said. I've lived in the county my whole life and as a taxpayer I'm pleased to see the commitment this county is making to health care."