Kaiser, Vacaville Medical Center

Vacaville Medical Center is a campus development including a 174-bed, 340,000 square-foot, four-story hospital; a 219,000 square-foot medical office building; and central utility plant.

The Kaiser Permanente Vacaville Medical Center is the fourth facility to be completed with Kaiser’s new template design. This flexible, evolving template offers both the cost savings resulting from standardization and builds on lessons learned from the first three medical centers, which share an identical footprint and many key program components. By taking full advantage of resources from previous template projects, the project team met a compressed project timeline by drastically decreasing the time needed for design and permitting approvals.

The permitting phase in particular was shortened dramatically because OSHPD had already processed and approved plans for three similar hospitals. The templates are similar in basic structure, mechanical systems, access points and layout, so there were few new pieces for OSHPD to evaluate. OSHPD approvals for projects of this size typically take 18 months. The first template facilities were approved in 12 months, Vacaville in just 8 months.

Cutting almost a year from the permitting phase delivered incalculable savings in the face of rapidly escalating construction and materials costs. This expedited process also enabled Rudolph and Sletten to procure subcontractors and preorder materials during preconstruction, a strategy that helped avoid cost overruns. Change orders and requests for information during construction were reduced by upfront communication and contractor involvement in design meetings.

The goal of the template program is not exact repetition, but adaption and evolution. The first three projects use pile foundation systems; Vacaville was initially engineered this way. However, the Vacaville sites water table is only eight feet below grade. KP evaluated the pile foundation system with the architect and general contractor and concluded that waterproofing as many as 1,500 individual piles would create an unnecessary cost hardship. By this time, the project had already entered the permit process. To change to a mat foundation system and create a kind of waterproof bathtub below grade, the team needed to re-approach the state permitting agency with finesse to realize cost savings. Accelerated design decisions and intense communication with OSHPD allowed the team to successfully incorporate the new foundation while keeping the project on track.

A Quality Management Team led by Rudolph and Sletten worked closely with the owner and architects. They conducted weekly quality walks of the job site with extensive review of mockups and first-in-place installations. Information gathered in daily reviews was evaluated by team members on a weekly basis with an organized agenda in an informal setting. They also conducted lengthy pre-installation conferences, including multi-hour group review of construction documents and design details, and establishing expectations. Foremen and work crews were included in these meetings, not just estimators.