Q: Can you share a bit about what drew you to this industry and your path to the MacDonald-Miller Healthcare team?

My initial path in school was oriented towards medicine. I went to the University of Washington thinking I would become a doctor, but I ended up transitioning into construction management. I ultimately realized healthcare and construction were a great combination for me because my mom managed a lab at Overlake, and my dad was a mobile crane operator for residential construction.

My very first job as an intern was working on a hyperbaric chamber at Virginia Mason, which was early exposure to the unique challenges of healthcare. For the next few years, I worked on downtown residential and office towers. Though the scale of projects were impressive, I missed the connection of working in hospitals.

Eventually, I transitioned to UW Medical Center for a very intensive project spanning four plus years. We built out shelled floors, moved services, and modernized several departments. That’s really where I found my fit and passion for healthcare. The sheer number of layers involved in healthcare, and the number of people you must be responsible for and responsible to, makes it unlike anything else I’ve experienced in construction. It’s definitely a challenge worthy of spending your time on.

Q: Healthcare facilities are known for having complex systems packed into limited space. How does MacDonald-Miller address constructability challenges in this highly dense environment?

Above ceiling free-space is absolutely a premium in healthcare, especially when going up in a tower where minimizing overhead height is key to maximizing usable square footage.

We always try to approach the project from a global perspective as if we are the owner/operator maintaining the building in the future. This enables us to think big, while still being practical. Our goal is to find solutions for the entire building that maximize utility distribution within the available space. From a constructability standpoint, we are often called upon to lead the detailing effort due to the systems we’re responsible for taking up the most room, which has led to us being well versed in working collaboratively with other trades like electricians, fire protection, and others.

Q: Pre-construction planning is vital, but projects often evolve. How does MacDonald-Miller offer the necessary flexibility during the precon phase of major healthcare projects?

During pre-construction, we need to be timely and adaptable with our pricing data. Customers might initially plan a floor for inpatient beds and then due to demand could pivot to ORs. Time is money, and owners are pushing to open swiftly, so we need to be quick and responsive, relying on metrics built from experience on similar large healthcare projects. Our costing metrics established on recent past work such as Seattle Children’s Forest B, University of Washington Medical Center, and Swedish North Tower helps guide decision-making and provides key information to the general contractor, ensuring the customer has complete information to make an informed choice.

Furthermore, during the construction phase, we fabricate pipe and duct just three to four weeks ahead of installation. This process allows us to incorporate design changes without having the entire project built, stored, and needing to be recycled, avoiding significant costs or delays.

Q: In most cases, Healthcare facilities not only need to open quickly, but they must also remain operational during new construction and renovation. What is the value of “Make-Ready” or enabling work, especially for buyers who may not fully grasp its complexity?

Healthcare providers are very focused on their mission of providing care, and construction activities threaten to disrupt their ability to do so effectively. The enabling or make-ready portion of a job is critical. Any successful construction project must start with getting building utilities and services moved appropriately, so new construction can start with minimal disruption. This includes propping up new patient care locations and utility reroutes – all tracked, coordinated, and executed without harming anyone downstream.

Our experience on the sustaining side informs new construction. For example, we frequently do compliance work like pressurization testing for operating rooms. If a room isn’t built correctly to be pressurized, hospitals can struggle to pass required room pressurization testing necessary for performing surgeries. By understanding these downstream problems, we ensure both existing retrofits and new buildings avoid those same pitfalls.

We work thoroughly with the hospital to verify services, even conducting mock shutdowns to ensure, for example, a chilled water line affects only what was anticipated. When required we run parallel lines or allow bypasses so systems downstream can remain live while we complete necessary work.

Q: What is MacDonald-Miller’s unique approach to quality assurance and commissioning support, especially considering the tight timelines at the end of a big project?

We support commissioning efficiently by dedicating a Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) commissioning support individual to the job from day one. They are present during rough-in, observing pipe and duct installation. They look for issues like overly extreme fittings and routing that could cause pressure drops due to routing. They are part of the entire project to avoid the typical headache of waiting until the end to “turn the switch on and see how it goes”.

Q: Finally, what is the most vital differentiator that you want Healthcare customers to recognize about MacDonald-Miller?

It’s our healthcare dedicated field teams. We have crews of fitters, sheet metal workers, plumbers, startup technicians, refer techs all who work in healthcare every single day. They understand the importance of stepping into a hospital and taking care of the work, because they live in the healthcare space daily. We’ve got one of the biggest healthcare construction groups in the region and we tackle everything from renovations and TIs to service projects and full ground-up construction.

Most importantly, everyone on the MacMiller team operates with a sense of urgency because we know how vital it is to get the job done right on time and on budget. This commitment and understanding of how to work within a hospital environment is what separates a great healthcare contractor from an average one.

Our people know the importance of their work, and they have decades of real-world knowledge to make even the most complex jobs run smoothly.