Mary Ann Derr describes what she has done to incorporate her bedside nurse experience into a company focused on building healthcare facilities.

According to the American Hospital Association and a recent article published by the Harvard Business Review, there are approximately 98,000 deaths per year in the US due to hospital errors, and roughly 5% (about 5,000) of those deaths are directly caused by construction errors.

Mary Ann Derr, RN and Director of Healthcare Construction

 
Switching roles
Messer is a full-service commercial construction manager, design-builder, general contractor, and program manager. Established in 1932, Messer’s first office opened in Cincinnati, Ohio, with additional offices in Columbus; Dayton; Indianapolis, Ind.; Louisville and Lexington, Ky.; and Knoxville and Nashville, Tenn. Messer’s project experience includes the areas of research buildings, educational facilities, office buildings, manufacturing facilities, and military facilities.

As an RN for nearly 20 years, Derr has worked in just about every clinical area in an acute care hospital setting, including pediatrics, the OR, the ED, and critical and intensive care units. Many of those years were spent in civilian hospitals, but the director later “raised her right hand to Uncle Sam” and commissioned into the US Navy, serving through Desert Shield and Desert Storm during peacetime and wartime.

Derr took that experience and moved into a management role when her time was up in the Navy and served as a director of nursing. After earning her MBA, she decided to take an entirely different route and accepted the position as director of healthcare construction for Messer. “This gave me a chance, as well as a platform, to use my broad background of nursing in an entirely different setting,” she said.

“In my old field of bedside nursing, I was able to provide service to one, two, or maybe even 10 patients per day. In this role, I believe my legacy and ability to affect others’ lives are much more far reaching than just a patient here or a patient there. I’m involved with the way these hospitals are constructed, making sure they are built with quality so we can service our customers as well as the patients.”

Derr has heavily focused on establishing a Messer training program to help the healthcare site leaders better understand the unique requirements of healthcare construction, bringing value to customers. Now she’s turning her focus to hospital administrators to truly understand what’s important to them and how Messer can help them with their strategic business plans, as well as ensure the building process is smooth.

“Construction is a huge undertaking for folks typically focused on patient care. We support them in making the process easier so they don’t have to worry or lose sleep over such a big endeavor,” Derr said.

Clinical translation
Last December, Messer’s healthcare construction division implemented an internal certification program for all its healthcare construction site leaders. The training provides the clinical perspectives of the best possible ways to build, renovate, and expand hospitals and other healthcare project sites. The program covers several components, some of which include infection control, site utilization, and safety and security.

Messer’s engineers are experts in what they do, but many of them have not been exposed to a healthcare environment. Derr is faced with the challenge of communicating to them the clinical perspective. “I see it as a healthy challenge. Although they worked in the healthcare field from the construction side, they haven’t pushed a patient in a gurney down the hall with construction equipment around,” she said. “They don’t see things like I do.”

It’s human nature for everyone to focus on their job and tasks, and laborers or carpenters might not necessarily connect what they’re doing with what’s going on in the hospital environment. Derr is seen as a translator, someone who bridges that gap, to help both sides fully understand each process.

“In a healthcare environment, you’re dealing with a unique set of needs because you’ve got patients, visitors, and physicians,” Derr said. “You can run the risk of patients becoming affected by the construction.”

The environment requires much attention to detail and some level of complexity that most construction companies don’t experience. The required internal certification program enables Messer’s expertise and best practices to be pulled together for healthcare site leaders. The standardized program has enabled the company to become more consistent in training processes, as it is used in multiple regions and states. Additionally, the company has established a Health Care Leadership Team. The team, possessing nearly 200 years of healthcare experience, has members in each Messer region. This group helps drive the best practices and training throughout the company. “We want to ensure we’re using the same best practices,” Derr said.

Collective focus
Although there are governing bodies for hospitals to make sure construction is going to be done appropriately to meet their guidelines and standards, Messer steps it up a notch. Derr consults with the Joint Commission on many occasions to get a better understanding of the environment of care, as well as its conditions and standards.

“We go to the source that created those regulations to clarify any particular points and learn the best practices. And every individual coming on to a job site is going to have this training as well as an understanding of the clinical happenings going on right next door to him or her. All our efforts factor into our collective focus to become known as the quality healthcare builder in each of our regions,” Derr concluded.