Temecula Valley Hospital in Temecula, Calif., is a 140-bed acute care hospital that was built based on Lean principles and an integrated project delivery (IPD) approach. Design began in April 2010, construction started in June 2011 and was completed in July 2012, and the facility started accepting patients in September 2013.

HMC Architects partnered with a DPR/Turner joint venture to deliver the Temecula Valley Hospital. Working with the client, Universal Health Services (UHS), the team used target value design to drive toward the $150 million total project cost, making it one of the most cost-effective hospitals ever built in California. The entire seven-party contractual IPD team put up their profit as a guarantee to UHS that they would hit the target, and if they exceeded the target they shared in the profit.

IPD and Lean tools and processes were utilized from the beginning of the project, including “big room” meetings, pull planning, A3 reporting, process mapping and simulation, and target value design. The seven-party contractual IPD team has been on board since day one, and subcontractors were involved during schematic design. After the project broke ground, DPR/Turner used  video techniques to continually improve construction processes by moving supplies closer to the construction team or identifying step reduction opportunities for repetitive tasks.

HMC’s design team collaborated closely with the project team to incorporate construction efficiencies into the design. HMC designers looked for ways to eliminate waste in areas that had no impact on patient service or operational efficiencies. For example, instead of two patient rooms in one bay, the team designed three rooms in one bay, which reduced the column count by 30 percent and shaved 15 percent off the steel tonnage. These efforts resulted in the lowest area-to-bed ratio of any hospital in California.

The team abandoned the traditional “racetrack” design, which circles the nursing station, in favor of a patient-centric design that distributes core support areas into hubs that run along a main corridor and improve wayfinding. With a goal of no more than 60 feet from nursing stations to key support areas, the team shortened the distance between staff and their support areas, freeing them to spend more time with their patients. HMC also designed a number of shared operational spaces to be used by different groups at different times, reducing the overall area while maintaining building function.

IPD TEAM

  • Universal Health Services
  • HMC Architects
  • DPR/Turner joint venture
  • DPR Self-Perform Drywall
  • Southland Industries
  • Southwest Fire Protection and Bergelectric Corp.
  • In.design