The Power of Planning: An Infrastructure-First Approach to Healthcare Design

Monday, October 19: 09:30AM - 10:30AM

This session examines how early infrastructure planning at the New Pediatric Campus developed by Children’s Health and UT Southwestern, in Dallas, TX wasn’t an afterthought, it was the starting point. Elevating infrastructure from a technical detail to a core planning driver, aligning it with both clinical and organizational priorities to lay the foundation for flexibility, resiliency, and operational success for the next 50+ years.

Presenters will discuss how this approach impacted utility forecasting (power, medical gases, IT), integration of future-ready systems like AGVs, and strategies for resiliency and sustainability. Including planning for advanced imaging, adaptable ORs and patient rooms, microgrids, and site expansion. The team will also discuss key considerations around electrification, flood mitigation, and implementing a utility substation

Through this case study, attendees will gain actionable insights into infrastructure planning strategies that support long-term adaptability, performance, and readiness in today’s rapidly evolving healthcare landscape.

Speakers

• Todd Herrman

• Candace Goodman

• Bob Feldbauer

Lessons learned from activating a 2M SF hospital and preparing 12,000 staff for Day 1 success.

Monday, October 19: 03:45pm - 04:45pm 

Designing a major healthcare facility often begins years before Patient Day 1, during which nearly every aspect of the project can shift. Resources, staffing, technology, patient volumes, and workflows may evolve, making it essential to preserve design intent while adapting to change in order to minimize redesign costs and ensure the environment supports safe, efficient care delivery. This case study highlights one of the nation’s largest healthcare mega‑projects and the operational readiness team responsible for guiding it from early design through activation. Presenters will share how core design principles shaped operational planning, end user engagement, workflow creation, and a training program for over 12,000 staff. The session also highlights how technologies such as advanced monitoring and interactive footwalls were integrated to support future workflows. Additionally, the team will share insights on how simulation exercises involving over 1,000 multidisciplinary participants were used to validate workflows. Attendees will gain practical lessons, strategies, and tools to strengthen their own design and activation efforts.

Speakers:

• Michelle Williams
• William Garner
• Katie Tuttle
• Christina Olivarria

A Practical Framework for Disaster Preparedness

Tuesday, October 20: 09:30AM - 10:30AM

As extreme weather events, infrastructure failures, and cyber threats increase in frequency and severity, healthcare facilities must rethink how they assess, design for, and manage risk. This session presents a practical framework for strategic facility risk mitigation-moving beyond emergency response toward proactive resilience planning. Drawing on real-world experience, the talk explores how to understand the full risk picture facing hospitals, from climate-driven hazards and utility disruptions to internal system vulnerabilities. Attendees will learn how thoughtful design, redundancy, maintenance practices, and facility hardening can reduce exposure; how evolving insurance models are reshaping risk decisions; and how detailed emergency planning minimizes operational and patient-care impacts when disruptions occur. The session emphasizes actionable strategies that support continuity of care, protect critical infrastructure, and position healthcare organizations to recover faster when-not if-disasters happen.

Speakers:

• Chris Talbert

Breathing New Life into a 75-Year-Old Hospital

Tuesday, October 20: 09:30AM - 10:30AM

What does it take to modernize a 75+ year old hospital campus, without shutting it down, exceeding a fixed grant budget, or compromising its long-term master plan? At Montefiore Mt. Vernon, renewal became an opportunity to reinvest in an underserved community, reimagining Emergency and OR platforms, introducing a welcoming new public canopy and upgrading infrastructure across multiple buildings constructed in different eras, often without reliable as-builts. Supported by state funding and strong collaboration with local officials, the project demanded speed, transparency and disciplined scope control. Working alongside JLL as owner's representative, the team balanced immediate operational needs with future campus transformation, reusing, tightening and strategically investing to maximize community value. This session goes beyond logistics. We will share the decision-making frameworks and design strategies that kept an active hospital open, safe and future ready - demonstrating how public investment, when paired with thoughtful planning, can accelerate equitable healthcare transformation.

Speakers:

• Tina Macica, Associate Vice President, Design and Construction, Montefiore Medical Center
• Dan Paesano, Vice President, PDS Healthcare Lead, JLL
• Christina Grimes, Partner, NBBJ

Prioritizing Capital: Managing Competing Voices

Tuesday, October 20: 01:15 PM - 02:15 PM

The audience will gain insight into the complex logistics and competing voices of coalescing the capital investment needs from 7 health markets with fairly independent leadership within a 6-state integrated care system. The listeners will experience system visualization techniques that describe the service line distribution of capabilities and capacities across various patient geographies. The program will demonstrate the synthesis of functional and capacity needs and infrastructure upgrades into priority projects. Participants will decipher the incongruities of planning, project and budget priorities. The presentation will illustrate that planning project flexibility is crucial in times of evolving budgetary guidance. The audience will explore the difficulties of staying the course from clinical vision to capital investment, solely in the planning process.

Speakers:

• John Temple, Principal, Forvis Mazars
• Chris Rupert, Senior Associate, Market Sector Leader, LEOADALY
• Alison Topp, Associate, Senior Medical Planner, LEOADALY

Constrained Sites: What Makes or Breaks a Healthcare Project

Tuesday, October 20: 02:30 PM - 03:30 PM

Health systems are rapidly expanding access, often pursuing tight urban sites and retail acquisitions to accelerate the delivery of outpatient and emergency services. While these projects promise speed to market, regulatory requirements, entitlement constraints, and infrastructure realities frequently challenge early capital assumptions. This session examines the development of a Florida freestanding emergency department (FSED) on a constrained site. The project transitioned from adaptive reuse to a tear-down and ground-up facility to meet licensure, operational, and life-safety requirements. The program includes an FSED and outpatient services, a shelled second floor for future expansion, and a parking garage, introducing additional complexity in circulation, infrastructure, and entitlement. Through perspectives from owner, strategy, architect, and contractor leaders, the panel will explore how regulatory separation, site limitations, and entitlement risk shape capital strategy. Attendees will gain practical insight into aligning growth ambitions with regulatory realities when developing healthcare facilities on constrained sites.

Speakers:

• Brea Elles, Design Construction Manager, Holy Cross Health Fl
• Brandon Charette, Vice President, Strategy & Business Development, Holy Cross Health 
• Daniel Breitner, Architect, Breitner Architect
• Christian Fernandez, Project Management, MPL Construction