The team of DiGiorgio Associates Inc. (DAI) and Monitor Builders Inc. (MBI) have been performing projects on an integrated design/build basis together for over 26 years. DAI and MBI share a simple philosophy regarding health care design and construction: to treat every health care client as if they were their own care provider. What sets DAI/MBI apart is that as practitioners of empathic design, seeing and hearing from the patients' point of view enables the team to properly plan, design and build patient-centered healing facilities. In turn, requirements and standards for potential buildings can be better addressed.
The DAI/MBI team recently completed the first phase of work with Harbor Health Services Inc.-Harbor Community Health Center on a Community Health Center fit-out and renovation in a mill building. This Design/Build project focused on fast-track construction, with an aggressive 10 week schedule from site selection for phase 1, including Department of Public Health approval and licensure, to meet grant requirements of a March 1 opening.
The design and construction scope for the Harbor Community Health Center project consists of total demolition, adding exam rooms and support functions, counseling rooms and dental treatment rooms, supporting a patient-centered medical home model. The construction cost for phase 1 and infrastructure was $650,000. Anticipated construction costs for phase 2, to be completed in June 2014, is $800,000. Total square footage for both phases is 7,000 s/f.
DAI and MBI are also currently working on several other design/build healthcare projects, including an $8 million emergency department addition and renovation for Harrington HealthCare at Hubbard in Webster, Mass., a $2.5 million acute care unit/central sterile renovation at Harrington's Southbridge campus, a $3.9 million renovation for a single bed patient floor at Lakes Region General Hospital in Laconia, N.H., and a $1.5 million laboratory renovation at Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan, ME. The team recently completed design and construction of a $300,000 off-site clinic for Brockton Neighborhood Health Center in Brockton, Mass., and a $450,000 renovation for Manet Community Health Center in Hull, Mass.
Over the past 26 years, DAI and MBI's integrated Design/Build approach has resulted in long-term partnerships with a number of health care providers across the region. Our firm is able to offer our clients a menu of services or a single source for quality, integrated facility services, freeing our clients from the day-to-day management of lengthy projects.