The healthcare division of this company incorporates the fine points of customer cultures into the delivery process. Bruce Andm Miller explain.

The healthcare and life sciences division at JE Dunn Construction concentrates on keeping the pace as healthcare organizations across the country struggle to keep up with the industry’s changing standards while balancing their budgets. With a history dating back to 1924, integrity and a focus on preserving the customer’s mission differentiates this family-owned company from others in the industry.

“By being better healthcare builders, we allow our clients to be better healthcare providers, and that requires a certain level of sensitivity,” said Bruce Anderson, vice president of healthcare and life sciences.

“Hospitals operate in an extremely sensitive environment, and the last thing they want to worry about is their contractor,” said Jim Miller, executive vice president of healthcare and life sciences. “We rely on integrity and honesty, taking care of clients so they don’t have to worry about the construction process. They have enough to worry about running a hospital.”

Bruce Andm Miller

Brain trust
JE Dunn’s first healthcare construction project dates back to the 1960s, Miller estimated. However, it wasn’t until the mid-’80s that healthcare became a substantial focus. Today, the company’s dedicated healthcare division comprises nearly 400 employees spread throughout JE Dunn’s 17 nationwide offices.

Headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., the healthcare and life sciences division works on a variety of diverse projects, including additions and renovations for large urban systems, as well as building replacement hospitals for small, rural hospitals. The division has experienced an average growth rate of 20% during the past five years, and many healthcare clients have been with the company for more than 20 years.

To maintain the JE Dunn reputation while recognizing the unique aspects of healthcare construction, the company developed a healthcare focused center of excellence. Each of the 17 national offices house one or two key healthcare professionals comprising a 24-person National Healthcare Leadership team. “The center of excellence allows us to utilize best practices across the system,” said Anderson. “It’s also a way to share human resources and new business opportunities.”

Under the National Healthcare Leadership team’s guidance, all healthcare staff has the opportunity to gather on a regular basis to share ideas, discuss industry trends, and look at ways to improve the division’s processes. “We work in many different places with a variety of clients and architects,” said Miller. “Each place brings a distinctive experience, and we bring those together to learn from each other.”

Give them what they want
The kind of open-book process the healthcare staff brings to each customer experience starts from quality control initiatives instilled throughout the division, the first of which is the We Care program. When JE Dunn begins working in a hospital, the company wants its staff to understand the finer points of working in a hospital. The program details such things as how they act, how they dress, and extends to more technical issues such as infection control procedures.

“We train our management personnel and work with major subcontractors so all the lead foremen understand the contract requirements,” said Miller. “Every worker who steps on one of our jobs runs through a training session that includes reviewing the We Care manual and watching the We Care DVD, which outlines the important points of working in and around a hospital setting.” The program was developed through an internal collaboration that included a variety of healthcare employees, specifically project managers and superintendents.

Another quality initiative, Think Green, Build Blue (green being the environment, blue being JE Dunn’s signature color), is in the process of being implemented across the system. “Moving forward, this will allow us to better support such projects as the Medical Center of the Rockies (MCR) in Loveland, Colo.,” said Miller. The Medical Center is pursuing a LEED Silver certification and is set to be one of the only with such certification in the nation.

Miller said his team learned more about LEED processes during the collaboration at MCR and developed an internal program to focus on the bigger environmental picture. “A majority of our project managers and management team are LEED accredited, and Think Green, Build Blue is another way to show our environmental stewardship,” he said.

The collaboration with MCR is typical of many of the division’s major projects. In recent years, as hospital projects become bigger and more complicated, they are implementing more wireless, digital, and high-tech equipment packages to create paperless systems, and front-end partnering sessions have become even more crucial to ensure all the needs of the hospital are met.

JE Dunn’s healthcare division also has an extensive cost estimating and cost history database, with inhouse mechanical and electrical consultants. “Preconstruction is more important than ever with the rising costs and escalation we’ve encountered,” said Miller. “Early collaboration between contractor, architect, and owner is critical to manage the cost and make sure our customer’s priorities are met.”

“We’re not simply getting a set of drawings, pricing them, and sending them back, we are working to be proactive,” said Anderson. “Many of these facilities want to be flexible for the future, so the goal is to work with the project team during design development and look at the options that will provide for future growth with design flexibility.”

“That’s what our centers of excellence are all about: sharing those elements across the nation, bringing them to other parts of the country, and giving our customers exactly what they want,” Anderson concluded.