Academic Medical

Institutions that educate medical professionals are building an increasing number of simulation centers in response to the need for more hands-on, interdisciplinary, real-life training scenarios. Although these facilities can generate revenue, the expense of the equipment and related costs make it difficult to be profitable. But, with the use of creative design strategies, institutions can improve utilization and generate income.

Lakeland Regional Medical Center is planning to build a $250 million women's and children's pavilion in Lakeland, Fla. The eight-story, 300,000-sf inpatient facility will include a pediatric emergency center, a level III neonatal ICU, 12 labor and delivery suites, three surgical suites, and physician offices. The pavilion will feature private patient rooms and is slated for completion in 2017.

Tartu University Hospital is planning to build a 420,000-sf medical campus in Tartu, Estonia. Consolidating all hospital functions in a single location, the campus will include an oncology center, internal medicine and ophthalmology clinics, laboratories, a pharmacy, and facilities for the departments of pathology, endoscopy, and cardiac surgery. The project is supported by $29 million in loan funding from the Nordic Investment Bank. Completion is expected in September of 2015.
 

Nova Southeastern University broke ground in February of 2014 on the 215,000-sf Center for Collaborative Research (CCR) in Davie, Fla. The $80 million multidisciplinary facility will house wet labs, an IBM supercomputer research suite, the Institute for Neuro-Immune Medicine, the Rumbaugh-Goodwin Institute for Cancer Research, and the Emil Buehler Research Center for Engineering, Science, and Mathematics. The building will also accommodate the General Clinical Research Center, the NSU Technology Incubator, and space for the United States Geological Survey.

The University of Scranton is building a $47.5 million center for rehabilitation education in Scranton, Pa. Supporting an interprofessional medical education pedagogy, the 116,000-sf facility will provide classrooms, simulation training suites, faculty offices, and 25 laboratories for programs in occupational therapy, physical therapy, and exercise science. The center was designed by Hemmler + Camayd and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson in association with HERA Laboratory Planners.

The following is a condensed transcript of a panel discussion that took place at Tradeline’s Academic Medical and Health Science Centers 2013 Conference. The panelists are Ian McDermott, senior director of MedRIST, University Health Network, and Scott Kelsey, managing principal at CO Architects. The moderator is Derek Westfall, president of Tradeline.

Seton Health is partnering with the University of Texas Dell Medical School to build a $295 million teaching hospital in Austin. General contractor JE Dunn will begin construction on the facility in mid-2014 with completion expected in 2017. The hospital will replace the existing University Medical Center Brackenridge and will be owned and operated by Seton, a subsidiary of Ascension Health.

Community colleges are fulfilling an increasingly important roll in higher education, particularly in allied health fields, and as a result are focusing on modern facilities and equipment to provide hands-on training. Elgin Community College (ECC) in Illinois recently opened a new, state-of-the-art Health & Life Sciences building, which is helping the college achieve its goals of remaining competitive and expanding program offerings.

Nevada State College broke ground in January of 2014 on the $32 million Nursing & Sciences Building in Las Vegas. Designed by PGAL, the 66,000-sf facility will provide advanced science labs, classrooms, faculty offices, an auditorium, and computer labs. The construction manager for the project is Ledcor. Completion is expected in August of 2015.

The six-story, 296,500-sf University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston’s School of Dentistry includes dental clinics, simulation and pre-clinical labs, clinical support labs, a clinical research lab, classrooms, learning resource center, student center, and administrative space. The building is divided into three zones: patient and public areas on the lower floors, topped by student areas, then faculty and staff areas on the upper floors.

Gundersen Health System opened the $180 million Legacy Building in January of 2014 in La Crosse, Wis. The 430,000-sf facility comprises six patient care floors and two service floors and features entirely private patient rooms. Designed to optimize workflows with dynamic functional adjacencies, the Legacy Building includes an emergency services department with integrated trauma and urgent care. The general contractor for the project was Kraus-Anderson Construction.

All Children's Hospital is partnering with the University of South Florida to create a 300,000-sf pediatric research facility in St. Petersburg. Housing 40 investigators, the project will support medical education, training, and joint research in areas including neuroscience, behavioral health, and early childhood diseases. The estimated construction cost of the facility is $75 million.

Panola College is planning to build a 64,000-sf facility to house the departments of Science and Health Science in Carthage, Texas. Designed by Corgan Associates, the $35 million facility will provide teaching labs for biology, chemistry, microbiology, physical science, anatomy, physiology, nursing, and occupational therapy. The Science-Health Science Building will also house classrooms, lecture halls, offices, computer labs, an instrumentation room, and study suites. The project contractor is HUNT Construction.

The University of South Florida broke ground on the $50 million USF Health Heart Institute in Tampa in December of 2013. The five-story, 100,000-sf facility will feature four core laboratories for basic and applied research, including regenerative medicine; pharmacology and drug discovery; bioinformatics and genomics; and integrative cell and organ physiology. The interdisciplinary project is created in partnership with Florida Hospital Pepin Heart Institute and is slated for completion in 2015.