Increasingly, more and more Americans are receiving healthcare on an outpatient basis rather than the more traditional inpatient care. As a result, healthcare organizations have tried to mold themselves into more accessible, streamlined and patient-oriented facilities. Such was the case with North Memorial Health Care.

Michaud Cooley Erickson was enlisted to provide mechanical, electrical, illumination and special systems engineering for NMHC’s 160,000 square foot new ambulatory care center and attached parking lot and 30,000 square feet of remodel work on the existing facility.

Major facilities in the ambulatory care center include the North Heart Center, Hubert H. Humphrey Cancer Center, Outpatient Laboratory Services, MRI Services, Outpatient Surgical and Endoscopy Services and a learning center with a library and educational classrooms.

This project followed a fast-track schedule, which called for construction to begin while drawings were still being generated. Therefore, schedule and budget were challenging aspects.

Due to the fact that hospital functions cannot be interrupted, even for remodeling and construction purposes, it was critical to keep the building’s systems operational during upgrade and redesign. The engineers at MCE were able to install a new chiller plant and surgical suite air handling system, in addition to numerous other projects, without causing any interference to existing building operation.