The 2012 Vista Awards were presented Monday by the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) of the American Hospital Association at the annual ASHE International Summit & Exhibition on Health Facility Planning, Design & Construction, commonly known as the PDC Summit in a ceremony that took place just prior to the opening keynote session. The Vista Awards recognize the importance of teamwork in creating an optimal healthcare physical environment. The winning teams showed a unity of purpose that helped their projects succeed from pre-planning to implementation, and that focus on teamwork was reinforced throughout the awards presentation.

The winners 2012 Vista Awards are the new Virginia Commonwealth University Health System Critical Care Hospital in Richmond, Virginia; the renovation of Hoag Hospital Irvine in Irvine, California; and the cardiology addition and central plant relocation at Liberty Hospital in Liberty, Missouri. The projects won in the categories of best new construction, renovation, and infrastructure, respectively.

The team constructing the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System Critical Care Hospital faced challenges in building a 15-story, state-of-the-art tower in a tight, historic, and urban campus. Team members said collaboration and enhanced communications with everyone involved led to the new hospital being built under budget and ahead of schedule.

The Hoag Hospital Irvine renovation project started as a three-phase "patch-and-paint" project and eventually grew to 13 stages that touched every corner of the hospital. Hospital officials said the fact that the hospital was completed three months ahead of schedule and nearly 5% under budget was an amazing accomplishment and reflection of teamwork.

Liberty Hospital, a comprehensive medical center about 20 minutes north of downtown Kansas City, wanted additional space for a heart and vascular project, and leaders found that a major plant facilities infrastructure construction and relocation was required. The initial scope was to overbuild the existing utility plant to create a new cardiology addition, while keeping all systems operational. This plan resulted in a seasonal sequencing of building and systems to keep the hospital operational through the 18 months of construction.

Congratulations to all of the winners.