MILWAUKEE, WI The Integrated Surgical and Interventional Platform renovation project is well underway on the Froedtert campus. The Platform will combine surgical and interventional care areas on a single, centrally located floor and will better accommodate today's surgical technologies. To ensure the required medical equipment for the Platform can be installed, the Mortenson Construction team had to coordinate the installation of 64 steel members in occupied spaces under the Platform.  

To complete these tasks, months of planning, precise coordination, extensive communication with hospital staff, and detailed disruption avoidance planning was required. 

To date, the team has installed 44, 10-foot steel channels, six I-beams, approximately 6000 linear feet of new electrical conduit, and numerous 1-inch thick steel plates under floor. The team installed four of the eight 30-foot long W16 x 36 beams above the ceiling adjacent to the hospital lobby. 

Detailed logistics planning was absolutely necessary. The team held multiple planning meetings to create Task-Specific IWPs outlining the installation. The team also created a Work Plan that highlighted the sequence of work.  The IWP and Work Plan, along with required hospital paperwork, and detailed travel paths for material and workers were reviewed with all craft workers and then posted within the workspace. 

In most cases, the team had to or will have to move departments into temporary spaces to complete the beam installation. This requires a variety of planning questions including who/what do we have to move out of our way, what MEP-FP systems do we have to shut down, what kind of notice do we have to give, and where will the people go for the time their space will be shutdown. Also the team has to accommodate staff within the departments and accurately schedule all work. As an example, the team had to shut down a neurology checkout counter. To accomplish this, teams had to build a temporary checkout counter, coordinate new patient routes, complete the work, re-build the existing checkout counter, and then take down the temporary counter within two weeks. 

In total, the team will complete a similar process in 13 different areas of the operational second floor and will move six different departments, some multiple times to complete the installation of all beams. These beams will ensure all medical equipment used in the Platform is properly supported. 

At the end of this four-year, phased renovation, the Integrated Surgical and Interventional Platform will be an environment that enhances patient safety, streamlines workflow, and fosters quality and efficiency. Froedtert will be one of very few hospitals in the nation who will have created this integrated environment.