Lessons Learned: Healthcare + COVID-19

It can take 3-4 years to build a hospital that will be around for 30+ years. During the building’s lifecycle, the patient demographic can shift, greatly altering the level of care needed in these facilities. On occasion, a pandemic or other emergency strikes further accelerating the need to adapt and change these facilities to meet current conditions.

dancker and our manufacturer partners recognize the need for flexibility in healthcare environments and we were ready when our clients began facing the COVID-19 crisis. As we continue to plan for a possible second wave as well as future emergency conditions, there are some lessons learned we want to share.

1. Trusted partners are critical during difficult times.

As our clients anxiously reached out for solutions to fit out emergency ICU’s and testing facilities, our teams were able to mobilize on multiple fronts. Where possible, we tapped the assets and inventory we maintain and manage for multiple healthcare systems in our logistical facilities to quickly redeploy and install temporary facilities. In a matter of hours, our Logistics team was able to fit out a testing tent at Atlantic Health’s Morristown Headquarters and an emergency department triage tent for RWJUH in New Brunswick.

We also were able to leverage manufacturer partnerships to their fullest. In one case, we teamed with local manufacturer Dauphin to fit out two emergency ICU’s in a New Jersey hospital. We were able to go from client request to order placement to install in under a week!

2. Focusing on something bigger than ourselves works.

As hospitals struggled to treat the overwhelming number of patients, it was critical to move projects forward quickly. By focusing on a common goal – to help save lives – our ForBuild team worked collaboratively with our healthcare system client, their design firm, their contractor and our DIRTT manufacturing partner, to deliver an Emergency Department Expansion in record time.

Not only were we able to expedite the pre-construction process and go into manufacturing of modular components in a matter of weeks, we were able to rely on DIRTT’s rapid response measures and a strong manufacturing team in Savannah, GA to deliver the project seven days sooner than anticipated.

3. Work with those closest to the problem for solutions

When faced with the challenge of balancing patient care with healthcare providers’ health, our client at Englewood Hospital turned to our ForBuild team to revisit their DIRTT solutions to solve for a pressing need. Together they devised a way to be able to safely keep Ventilators and Medical IV pumps outside of COVID patient rooms so their teams could monitor patients without the need to enter the room as often, keeping them safe and saving them time and the cost of new PPE that would have been required.

4. The details always matter.

Our Operations and Logistics teams are experts in focusing on all the details that matter. From the onset of the COVID crisis, our teams never wavered in their commitment to deliver exceptional experiences for our customers.  Our clients were able to rely on their expertise as they quickly adapted and developed tailored plans to support them.

In one example for our Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center client in New York City, our team adjusted schedules to create a dedicated field team focused on delivering reliable and dependable service as MSK quickly mobilized to protect their vulnerable patient population. In another, our team traveled to 25 different Kaiser Permanente facilities in Maryland over one week to ensure that their order of over 200 COVID-19 separation screens were installed properly. The team also rearranged waiting room furniture to meet proper physical distancing standards.

We believe that our commitment to always be in service of others sustained us through the challenging times we’ve all faced in 2020. The resiliency of our team remains strong and we’re ready to support our clients no matter what the rest of the year brings us!