Undisrupting renovations with temporary walls for healthcare​

With STARC LiteBarrier, I can provide a superior ICRA solution where speed of installation is of paramount importance. I can get containment installed at a hospital in a matter of hours. Background Modern Containment is a temporary containment provider established in Plantation, Florida, in January 2020 and is run by Mike and Na…

Alvin Dunaisky oversees major hospital projects — and most recently — played a critical role in SUNY downstate’s pandemic response. He describes key challenges and learning below. Background SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University is the only academic medical center in Brooklyn. At the height of the COVID-19 …

Hendrick’s Regional Health is a small, high-quality, lower-cost 160-bed hospital in Danville, Indiana. Their facility was overwhelmed by a high number of COVID-19 infections and this is how the facilities team created multiple patient isolation rooms throughout the hospital. Hendricks is a county-owned hospital with 160 beds l…

“Again, patient safety is our number one priority. STARC System panels make it easy to install HEPA filters which keeps the dust and debris contained to the construction site.” Troy Yarbrough, CEO, Preferred Construction Group Preferred Construction Group (PCG) holds a leading position in Michigan’s construction and renova…

Keeping Dust and Contaminants at Bay During Hospital Cafeteria Renovation Based in Minneapolis, RJM Construction has been providing commercial contracting services since 1981. RJM delivers on clients’ vision in ground-up construction and interior remodeling from concept to completion. Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital in St. Lo…

An ICRA Containment Challenge Solved DPR Construction, one of the largest general contractors in the nation, is accustomed to working in challenging environments. Established in 1990, the firm specializes in technically complex and sustainable projects for healthcare, advanced technology, higher education, life sciences, and com…

Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) is a 793-bed, nonprofit teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School in Boston. Recently, when BWH needed to renovate several dozen patient rooms for two separate projects comprising a postpartum unit renovation, they tapped Suffolk Construction, which has completed more than 30 new construct…

100% Approved by Epidemiologists Wexner Medical Center, at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, is an academic medical center serving more than 1.7 million patients annually. The center has been named among the best hospitals in the nation by US News & World Report. “It’s 100% approved by our epidemiologists…

100% ICRA Compliance Required Mortenson is a top-20 builder, developer and provider of energy and engineering services. Based in Minnesota, Mortenson has operations across North America and Canada. For more than 50 years, Mortenson has provided construction and engineering services to Abbott Northwestern Hospital, the largest ho…

Keeping Patients Safe During Renovations Central Maine Medical Center (CMMC) provides vital medical services to a population base of 400,000 people in central and western Maine. The medical center needed to renovate its Emergency Department, while keeping it open and safe for staff and patients. “This is the best solution I ha…

Busy Lobby Transformation to Pharmacy Maine Medical Center (part of MaineHealth) renovated a space off the facility’s lobby into a new retail pharmacy requiring the need to build temporary wall systems because opposite of the construction area was the main security reception desk and employee registration desk, two high-t…

Renovations without Scheduling Impact St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center had a unique challenge: The facility needed to separate areas within its Wound Care program, including hyperbaric chambers. Because of code requirements, the hyperbaric chambers needed to be enclosed, separated from the wound treatment area. “Building a…

Quiet Containment During Renovation Central Maine Medical Center (CMMC) reconfigured several radiology suites to incorporate new technologies. Two radiology rooms shared a common control room; one room was being renovated. Construction containment was needed to isolate the wall separating the control room from the renovation are…

Started in 1943, Hebert Construction is one of northern New England’s leaders in general contracting, commercial construction management, design/build, pre-construction, and self-performing services. Hebert specializes in commercial, corporate, healthcare, educational, and public housing projects. St. Mary’s Regional Medical…

Eskenazi Health of Indianapolis Indiana is one of America’s largest essential health care systems, providing treatment and services for residents of Marion County and Central Indiana. The Sandra Eskenazi Mental Health Center was the first community mental health center established in Indiana.  The Hagerman Group, based in…

Infection control remains a significant concern for healthcare facilities. Put the COVID pandemic aside for the moment, and the risk of healthcare-associated infection (HAI) during a hospital stay is still one in seven, even in high-income countries like the United States. On average, 10% of affected patients do not survive.

*Updated March 2023 Designing temporary containment for construction and renovation projects takes many factors into consideration, but safety is paramount. Particularly for use in healthcare settings, where concerns about keeping patients, caregivers and staff protected from construction dust and potentially dangerous pathogens are always top of mind.

The next generation of the infection control risk assessment – dubbed ICRA 2.0 – was developed by ASHE, which convened a group of experts to review the original ICRA processes after several years in use. Although the updated precautions matrix is intended as a guide for healthcare construction and renovation projects, it’s a good idea to check your local and state regulations to see if a particular locality has elevated ICRA 2.0 into a requirement.

By JANET HAAS, PhD, RN, CIC, Principal Consulting Epidemiologist, Innovative Infection Prevention The latest version of the infection control risk assessment has been called ICRA 2.0 to distinguish it from the original version that facility managers and infection preventionists have been using for several years. As mentioned in my previous blog post on this topic, ICRA 2.0 builds on many years of experience using the original ICRA and clarifies many areas that were not specifically addressed. In this post, we’ll apply ICRA 2.0 to some scenarios of construction and maintenance activities that are typical for healthcare facilities.

By JANET HAAS, PhD, RN, CIC, Principal Consulting Epidemiologist, Innovative Infection Prevention

Hospitals typically employ safety personnel to prioritize patient safety and to ensure that doctors, nurses and staff can do their jobs in a safe environment.

Updated August 2021 IPs, FMs, or healthcare contractors may have heard of the Safety Risk Assessment or SRA, and most start to think about the Infection Control Risk Assessment or ICRA only in the days before construction begins. Both should be integral parts of the design and planning phases of construction and renovation projects. Discover the latest developments in healthcare construction safety from our infection prevention advisor, Janet Haas: SRA and ICRA: New Developments in Healthcare Construction Safety During renovations or remodeling, construction barriers in hospitals play a vital role in infection control. As a preventive measure, the barriers are part of infection control practices that are crucial to reducing the transmission of hospital-acquired infections (HAI).

Updated: August 2021 Modular wall systems not only demonstrated their usefulness in handling the huge number of COVID-19 patients since the start of the pandemic but also showed how hospitals could deal rapidly with infrastructural needs in other large-scale healthcare emergencies while minimizing disruption to their operations. Discover 5 Ways To Use Modular Walls Systems In Healthcare Facilities During The Pandemic. What is the Definition of an Anteroom? An anteroom is an essential tool for hospital renovation, maintenance and infection control. It is simply a smaller room one would enter before entering a much larger room.