"Business has remained steady for our firm that has been building health-care structures for years,” said Tony Galullo, Walsh Construction senior superintendent. Sherman Hospital, currently building a replacement hospital scheduled to be completed in late 2009 at the northeast corner of Randall and Big Timber roads in Elgin, is just one of Walsh Construction’s many health-care projects. Chicago-based Walsh Construction also built the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, the Chicago Prostate Cancer Center, the John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County and the LaGrange Memorial Hospital. These projects, plus the Sherman replacement hospital project, are valued at $724 million. When Sherman Hospital announced its plans for its replacement hospital in 2005, the hospital cited several reasons for moving ahead with the project. These reasons include increased costs associated with maintaining its current facility (parts date back to 1917) and an inability to grow on only thirteen acres of land. The new hospital is being built on 154 acres of land. “The Sherman replacement hospital (located) is being built with the aim to be a regional hospital designed to increase the region's access to quality health care,” said Dawn Stoner, replacement hospital project manager. “The hospital will also boost the economy with nearly 3,000 construction jobs and additional jobs in the health-care sector.” According to the Illinois Hospital Association, Illinois hospitals’ impact on the state economy is more than $63 billion a year. Other drivers that influence the health-care construction market are upgrades to advanced technology, movement from cities to suburbs, the move to friendlier, more comfortable hospital experiences, and changes in safety and environmental requirements necessitating renovation or rebuilding.

"The health-care sector is a great market for construction contractors that have the experience and skills to work in this challenging environment,” Walsh's Galullo said. “The design and construction from residential and commercial sectors are very different with requirements and costs varying for each type of use. Medical office versus outpatient surgery, MRI versus CT installations, an ophthalmologist’s exam room versus a family practitioner office; each one is very different from the other.

"The major problem facing contractors with little or no experience in medical projects is ensuring that all the necessary special requirements, materials and construction procedures are taken into account in the final bid,” he added.

Insurance is something that both health-care and construction organizations need to fully understand when planning a project. The first hurdle for a new health-care project is obtaining a Certificate of Need.

"Once a project is approved, the health-care organization must give great consideration to the project specific insurance and risk management requirements,” said Ron Phillips, of the construction practice of Marsh & McLennan, a leading insurance broker and risk advisor. “Health-care project owners should evaluate the insurance alternatives which best protect the professional, environmental, and general liabilities associated with their project, including appropriate, dedicated insurance limits, additional insured endorsements, and coverage for completed operations.

"Marsh is seeing many health-care project owners turn to wrap-up insurance programs to cover their project interests," Phillips said.

The Sherman replacement hospital will include a six-story patient tower, a two-story diagnostic and treatment center, cancer center and emergency department totaling more than 645 thousand square feet with 255 private patient beds and services, and a unique fifteen-acre geothermal lake. “We are on schedule and within budget,” Stoner said. “Along with this success is the great support we have had from Tasty Catering.”

As one of the largest networks of medical care facilities in Chicago's Northwest suburbs, we wanted to ensure our stakeholder satisfaction levels were maintained throughout the entire process -- from expansion announcement to new facilities and everything in between,” Stoner said. “Tasty Catering has provided us with events planning and catering services for our public announcement, groundbreaking, employee town hall meeting, topping off ceremony, and new patient room and hospital sneak peaks and press events.”

Serving the construction side, Elk Grove Village-based Tasty Catering has provided Walsh Construction events planning and catering services to help the company recognize employees for safety efforts (e.g., no accidents in 120 days). Since June 2007, Tasty Catering has supported Walsh with thirteen safety reward events, one of which took place at the Sherman Hospital construction site. These are on-site grilled events or buffets where construction workers must be served in an efficient manner so they can be back on the job in thirty minutes.