Complexity in commercial construction comes at all levels of a project. At a big-picture level, you’re often navigating questions like site selection, budget, and finding your architect and general contractor. On the micro-level, it’s everything from nailing down specific line-items in your budget to finalizing your selection of hardware or finishings.

The decisions to make are endless, and the complexity becomes even greater when tasked with a medical facility build-out. The biggest reason why? AHCA compliance.

As we’ve discussed before, securing AHCA approval can be time-consuming and wreak havoc with a construction schedule. While there are several specific steps you must take in order to secure AHCA approval, here are a few important tips to keep in mind that will help mitigate the unique construction challenges that come with medical facility builds:

• Live and breathe by your pre-construction documents
• Communicate, communicate, communicate (you must have complete trust in your construction team)
• Educate yourself on AHCA compliance requirements
• Ask questions – a lot of questions
• Learn from those who have done it before – experience goes a long way in avoiding potential missteps with your project

Additionally, health facility renovations can pose their own set of challenges. After all, the site must remain fully operable throughout the entire course of construction. And that means there is no room for compromise on safety, security, and compliance measures.

We have first-hand experience with this.

During the course of one of our assisted-living facility renovations, we were tasked with building a new nurse call station. Because of the critical function the nurse call station serves, it could not be without a facility for even a day. To remedy this significant roadblock to construction, we built a temporary nurse call station – and secured AHCA approval for that temporary station – before we proceeded to build the new one (which also required AHCA approval).

While not the easiest undertaking, our teams tackled the challenge successfully by anticipating the need and working through the appropriate approvals in order to keep the nurse call station fully functional throughout construction.

Medical facility construction challenges can be overcome successfully with adequate planning, communication, and experienced construction. Give us a call at 786-433-8740 to schedule a consultation for your next project.