Undisrupting renovations with temporary walls for healthcare​

ICRA 2.0-Compliant Dust Barriers Keep Patients Safe and Sound(less) Half the ER was under construction. The other half? Saving lives. STARC’s RealWall™ helped DPR pull off both—without missing a beat. We were focused on sound attenuation, dust control, and a professional look. From the acoustics and gasketing, to the ceili…

Three-phase, fast track office build-out showcases STARC advantage over dust, noise containment Fresenius Medical Care (FMC) is the world’s largest provider of services for individuals with renal diseases and other chronic conditions. J Calnan & Associates (JC&A) of Boston provided pre-construction and construction man…

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. Following is how the facilities team quickly created multiple patient isolation rooms throughout the hospital. Hendricks is a county-owned hospital with …

10,000 SF, Multi-Phase Project Benefits From Speed, Safety & Sustainability Gains 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 Hospit…

Patients, Families, and the Public Retain Access to a Fully Functional Recreation Area—With No Disruptions From Ongoing Construction 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 …

Construction Noise, Dust, Hazardous Materials Easily Contained During CMMC’s ED Renovation   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 saf…

Achieving 100% ICRA Compliance and Sound Attenuation in a Hospital Setting When undertaking hospital renovations, infection control is a top priority. That’s why ICRA barriers are essential in maintaining a safe, compliant environment. Abbott Northwestern Hospital, the largest hospital in Minneapolis, recently completed a majo…

Postpartum Floor Renovation Delivers Safety, Efficiency, and Patient Satisfaction Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), a 793-bed nonprofit teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School in Boston, recently embarked on a major renovation of its postpartum unit. With dozens of patient rooms requiring updates, the hospital turned to…

Fast, Flexible, Easy to Install—and 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. Challeng…

Temporary Construction Barrier Proves Faster, Easier Alternative to Traditional Drywall Containment Maine Medical Center (part of MaineHealth) recently renovated a space off the facility’s lobby to accommodate a new retail pharmacy. The project called for building temporary walls because, opposite the construction area, i…

CMMC Project Tackles Dust, Noise With 45-Minute Wall Installation 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 contro…

LiteBarrier Temporary Construction Walls Enable Environment Controls, Isolation—Fast 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. The company specializes in commercial, co…

Healthcare Construction Leader Embraces Drywall Alternative for Cost Savings W.E. Bowman, a healthcare construction leader based in Richmond, Virginia, serves major healthcare clients such as Southside Regional Medical, Riverside Health Systems, Central Health Systems, Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Universal He…

Safe, Secure & Durable ICRA Barriers Speed Project Success While Protecting Patients Preferred Construction Group (PCG) holds a leading position in Michigan’s construction and renovation marketplace, serving clients in the commercial, healthcare and institutional sectors. One of PCG’s largest customers is Spectrum Health…

Airtight, Washable, Noise-Blocking Temporary Walls Outshine Drywall in Sensitive Settings 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, se…

With 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 Nancy Mo…

Disruption-Free Barrier System Outperforms Drywall in Sensitive Setting 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 …

Alvin Dunaisky oversees major hospital projects. Most recently, he played a critical role in SUNY Downstate’s pandemic response. He describes key challenges and takeaways below. SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University is the only academic medical center in Brooklyn. At the height of the COVID-19 outbreak, Governor Cuomo …

Project and Facilities Managers need efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and minimal disruption for successful renovation projects. While many still use traditional drywall, its hidden costs and inefficiencies are becoming clear. As a result, more professionals now turn to temporary wall systems.

Designing temporary containment for construction and renovation projects requires careful planning. However, safety always comes first—especially in healthcare settings, where protecting patients, caregivers, and staff from construction dust and potentially dangerous pathogens is critical.

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 a…

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 s…

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 o…

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 d…