Mercy Orthopedic Hospital Debuts Ahead of Schedule

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — The $115 million Mercy Orthopedic Hospital opened in late August to offer a wide range of orthopedic and spine services to the local community of Springfield, Mo.

The four-story, 199,000-square-foot hospital was designed by HKS Inc., headquartered in Dallas, and constructed by McCarthy Building Companies Inc., with offices in St. Louis. Even with an aggressive construction schedule, the project was substantially completed five weeks ahead of schedule with some areas completed as early as eight weeks ahead of schedule.

“Each month we focused on the critical path of the schedule and then we would create detailed work plans on different ways to pick up days through either phasing or working additional crews or working selected additional hours,” said Jared Hites, senior project manager with McCarthy.

The project utilized field technologies to keep the project on schedule and to identify any trouble areas early. Field technologies used in this project included BIM 360 Field, electronic document management, field tablets, an on-site information kiosk, and mechanical, electrical and plumbing robotics.

“We used all the latest technology from 100 percent electronic documents that were hyperlinked and posted electronically through BIM 360 Field, which is a software system that allows us to utilize our field tablets to perform a lot of our field management tasks — not only for the subcontractors at McCarthy but also for the owners, the architects and the engineers,” Hites said.

The BIM 360 Field coordination process allowed the contractors to realize prefab opportunities to keep up with the speedy time frame of the complex project. The building was fast and concurrent with design progression and completion, Hites said.

“The designers would design the foundation and frame portion and we’d get started on that while they were still designing the exterior portion and the interior,” Hites said. “The design and construction really overlapped similar to any fast-tracked project.”

The new hospital includes 10 operating rooms, 48 inpatient beds, a clinic, café and retail pharmacy. The project employed approximately 2,000 people from the time it broke ground in summer 2011, which provided a boost to the local economy. Hites commented that it is always a priority for McCarthy to hire locally when possible.

“It’s important for us, when we come into these communities, to be a good community builder and to utilize as much local participation related to subcontractors, vendors and trade workers,” Hites said. “Ultimately, they are the people that are going to be using the hospital.”

Local contractors performed approximately 93 percent of the subcontracted work for the project. This was a beneficial choice economically, but was also beneficial in terms of scheduling and the high quality of subcontractors in the local area, Hites said.

“Fortunately, the Springfield area has a vast supply of qualified vendors, subcontractors and trade workers, so we were able to accomplish that and be a good community builder,” Hites said.

It was crucial to create early and contiguous detailed work plans with full understanding from the team, from owners to contractors, in a project of this timing and complexity, Hites said.

“Having those detailed work plans was very valuable and that result was completing the project ahead of schedule, under budget and with the highest quality,” Hites said.