Renovating healthcare spaces — especially pediatric and high acuity — is about more than construction. It’s about empathy, precision, and partnership. At Barton Malow, we’ve learned that delivering excellence in these environments means balancing construction production with compassion, and logistics with innovation. Every project teaches us valuable lessons, enhancing our best practices for outstanding results. Here are insights from our latest projects, showcasing our dedication to excellence:
Proactive Collaboration for Success
Effective renovations require a proactive and holistic approach, emphasizing early integration of technology, team synergy, and extensive multi-stakeholder collaboration. By prioritizing patient care, strategic sequencing, and fostering alignment among all participants, we ensure that planning and phasing are conducted with the end goal in mind.
In active hospital construction, care doesn’t stop. On the University of Missouri Health Care Children’s Hospital expansion project, our team integrated a full-facade connection of a new nine-story, 323,000 SF pediatric and birthing addition to an existing adult patient tower, without interrupting operations. We implemented rigorous Infection Control Mitigation Protocols, daily safety checklists, and phased high-noise and dust-generating work to protect patients and staff. Even the removal of the existing 10,000-pound facade panels was choreographed with surgical precision to avoid exposure and disruption.
Early Contractor Involvement: A Key to Seamless Sequencing and Collaboration
Early contractor involvement is essential in complex renovations, enabling detailed coordination of interstitial spaces and integration of MEP systems into existing conditions.
Orlando Health’s Winnie Palmer Hospital Maternal Fetal Medicine renovation project overcame challenges by emphasizing collaboration and early engagement with contractors, design teams, staff, and regulatory authorities. This ensured construction adhered to codes while preserving existing infrastructure and allowed for phased construction without disrupting operations. Strategies included dual occupancy of floors and pods, enabling smooth transitions between phases while minimizing disruptions.
Tyler Donnell, Barton Malow’s Project Executive for this and many other Orlando Health expansion and renovation projects emphasized, “Working together as a team, we were able to ensure each activity was carefully planned to integrate with hospital operations, focusing on compliance, safety, and operational efficiency in a sensitive medical environment.”
Prioritizing Pediatric Care: A Vision for the Future
At Barton Malow, our commitment to enhancing pediatric care is deeply integrated into the construction process. By incorporating construction elements that align with pediatric theming, we focus on creating facilities that are not only functional but also comforting and engaging. This involves meticulous planning and execution to ensure that every aspect of the construction process — from material selection to spatial layout — supports a healing environment tailored to young patients.
Our approach also emphasizes the importance of robust infrastructure, ensuring that healthcare settings can support cutting-edge technologies and adapt to the ever-changing needs of pediatric medicine. Every detail, from the layout of patient rooms to the seamless integration of medical equipment, is carefully considered throughout the construction process.
“As we look to the future, Barton Malow remains committed to advancing healthcare through creative and thoughtful solutions. With every project, we strive to play our role in delivering facilities that improve pediatric care, ensuring that families feel supported and children thrive in spaces built for their well-being,” said Karen Voit, Senior Project Executive for healthcare projects in the southeast U.S. for Barton Malow.
To learn more about healthcare construction at Barton Malow, visit our website.
About the Author: With over 35 years in the industry, National Healthcare Market Leader Walter Jones’ broad background in healthcare design and construction has provided him with the depth of experience to lead and support high-performing healthcare project delivery teams. Walter thrives on building confidence in teams by developing growth while fostering innovation. He does this with a disciplined focus on value creation and risk management.
Walter brings a successful track record on healthcare projects for clients across the nation by yielding results that exceed expectations, quality, and trusted partnerships.
