As we typically do at the beginning of each year, the leadership team at The Stahl Companies broke away from the day-to-day to reflect on the past twelve months and look forward to the coming year. This annual summit supports our desire to grow our abilities, celebrate successes, consider improvements, and set goals for the future.
Last year we built upon our company vision to deliver projects with expertise for the health of our communities by adding a theme for 2021. That theme was the health of our employees. It influenced all that we did in 2021, from our monthly team meetings to team building events and even our day-to-day where we would check in on our team’s ability to live out one of our core values: work-life balance. Each month, our team meeting was complemented by bringing in local CrossFit legend and gym owner Blair Morrison of AnywhereFit to get us eating and moving in the right direction. This industry has the propensity to demand much of us. We have the challenge of meeting that demand without letting it take over our general well-being, personal lives, or overall health. At the beginning of 2021, that meant regularly reminding our team to go home and recharge, so that when they returned to work the team would be ready to meet the challenges of another day. I’m happy to report that 2021 was a healthy year at Stahl.
One of the things that these past two years has taught us is the importance of resource management. We’ve seen shortages in toilet paper, PPE, funds, people… the list goes on. The shortage of staff and funding translated into our clients halting the very projects that are the lifeblood of their businesses as well as ours. With this in mind, in 2022 The Stahl Companies is focusing on financial health. We will carry this through all that we do to include the best use of our people and their talents, and the finances we’re responsible for in our management of the programs that our clients entrust to us. We already do these things very well, but this year we will raise the bar with specific training, guest collaborators, and an everyday focus on financial wellness.
About three years ago we committed to collaborate more within our industry to improve on our services and to challenge others to do the same. This was not easy with the happenings of the past two years, but we stand resolute that through collaboration we can all challenge ourselves and bring added value to our clients. In the content below, you’ll hear from about some of the projects that are experiencing that added value and how, despite the disruptions we’ve faced, we continue to lead with successful outcomes for the health of our communities.
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The Stahl Companies was invited by LeadingAge California to speak monthly via webinar in their 2022 Training Series. These are informational meetings particularly geared to facility managers and operations managers, those individuals who want to better understand how maintenance directly correlates to their facility’s bottom line.
“This virtual gathering provides an opportunity for maintenance and facility staff members of LeadingAge California to network and exchange ideas on a regular basis.”
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Healthcare Project Delivery Conference 2022 |
Joining approximately 800 healthcare providers, Walt Stahl and Troy Tucker traveled to San Diego to participate in this conference on January 24th & 25th to “Learn how providers are overcoming resource constraints to upgrade facilities and deliver new developments.”
This conference targets our clients in acute care hospitals, clinics, and specialty facilities and colleagues in the AEC field.
One of the highlights of the conference, for us, was featured keynote speaker Phyllis Baltz, President & CEO of Dignity Health Methodist Hospital of Sacramento, one of our project sites in Northern California. She spoke of their planned facility which will serve the community of Elk Grove.
As Sacramento anticipates the new Northstate Hospital construction, we were keen to hear keynote speaker Dr. Alvin Cheung, Presiodent & CEO of California Northstate University (CNU).
Also presenting at the conference were industry partners including Joey Kragelund of HKS who offered a very interesting discussion about the new Facilities Guidelines white paper, Guidance for Designing Health and Residential Care Facilities that Respond and Adapt to Emergency Conditions.
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Happy Anniversary!
Five of our Ideal Team Players are celebrating anniversaries this quarter. Congratulations!
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Payton Ohl
Project Coordinator
1/13/2020 - 2 years
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Karyn Puma
Sr. Project Manager
1/28/2008 - 14 years
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Allison Tucker
Project Accountant
1/31/2018 - 4 years
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Troy Tucker
President
3/6/2007 - 15 years
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Jason Thompson
Project Manager
2/29/2016 - 6 years
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See our entire Stahl Team here! |
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OSHPD Facilities Development Division Webinars
Building Standards Unit
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Recent Webinars attended by the Stahl Team |
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- CAN 2-11B Accessibility in Health Facilities
Date: January 6, 2022
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TRAINING UPDATE
The Stahl Companies is committed to the continuous pursuit of knowledge to support our expertise in serving the healthcare construction industry in the State of California.
Over the last few months, we have continued to immerse ourselves in learning opportunities by joining webinars offered by HCAI. We have been working with HCAI to re-open and close (in-compliance), projects from the past that were closed non-compliant. Additionally, we have been working with the seismic compliance unit to add a new building to an existing campus.
In addition to joining webinars presented by HCAI, CSHE and other organizations, we are committed to providing ongoing support to our team. Our internal development programs are constantly evolving and are key to ensuring we are delivering projects with Service Excellence. For 2022, we are excited to add a comprehensive plan reading series to our program.
Here are some of the topics recently covered:
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- Add a New Building (HCAI Seismic Compliance Unit)
- HCAI 3 Preliminary Plan Process
- Contractor Pay Applications
- Construction Terminology
- Plan Reading Series
- As-Built Drawings
- Communication
- Lien Releases
- Project Bonds
- Scheduling
- Project Phases
- Project Meetings
- Environment of Care
- HCAI Project Closure
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Leveraging Technology to Keep the Project on Track |
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Construction in healthcare has required ingenuity and innovation, resulting in new uses of existing and new technologies to access construction sites remotely, minimize feet on the ground at each job site, and layer in protections for the client, patients, employees, and craftsmen working on site.
High-definition 3D scanning room technology has proven to be essential for healthcare clients, before and during COVID, as it is able to provide:
• Time-stamped work with preserved historical data providing the ability to collect information on utility, medical gas lines, and other critical infrastructure which has been a lifesaver during the renovation of older hospitals and facilities where “as-built” construction does not match the current facility layouts. These 3D scans also provide accurate documentation to support safe and accurate future construction needs.
• Minimized client travel thanks to remote walk-through capabilities. Clients unable to travel get a 360-degree, 3D view weekly to check status.
• Better coordination with subcontractors resulting in minimized change orders, reduction in errors, fewer subcontractors on the job site, and a host of other benefits.
- Robotic “dogs” - Boston Dynamic’s quadruped robots walk through construction sites to inspect progress, measure and report data points, create a digital twin, and compare as-built to building information modeling (BIM). This technology is ahead of the curve as demonstrated for a new Specialty Medical Office Building in Northern California for a confidential healthcare client, where they leveraged the robotic dogs to track and create consistent, real-time point cloud data of the 197,800 SF medical center with 143 doctors’ offices and 116 exam rooms.
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Mercy Retirement & Care Center (MRCC)
Oakland, CA
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Over this last quarter, our team completed the 5th-floor renovations within the Mercy Retirement and Care Center Assisted Living Tower. Residents were delighted to move into their newly remodeled apartment homes. Now the remodel of the 6th floor is underway and is expected to be complete in March 2022.
Construction in the dining room space and staff administrative areas within the Care Center is almost complete, which is generating excitement among staff and residents.
The site work includes re-paving the main entrance, a new pathway from the Care Center to the street, and the recently completed upgrades to the paratransit area.
With finishing touches such as the new furniture, fixtures, and equipment (FF&E) installed, the Courtyard is ready for Spring weather, when the residents will truly begin to enjoy their new outdoor space.
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Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center
Burbank, CA
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New O2 Yard Project
The Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center campus is the location of many ongoing projects for The Stahl Companies, the largest of which are the new Emergency Department and Urgent Care buildings.
A component of this large and exciting project was to build a new O2 Yard to carry additional capacity to accommodate the two new buildings on campus.
At the onset of COVID, necessary changes became apparent for this part of the ED project. With thoughtful but swift consideration, it was revised to address the new challenges.
COVID patient requirements substantially increased the oxygen demands in the hospital. The existing vaporizers were freezing (not allowing for oxygen flow) due to the increased demand. Therefore, the O2 yard project was redesigned for a larger capacity. The revised plans included additional power, a larger concrete pad to be constructed adjacent to the soon-to-be-obsolete yard, replacement of the 3,000- and 5,000-gallon tanks with new 5,000- and 9,000-gallon tanks, manifolds, piping, controls, new fence, and bollards. Plans were sent back through OSHPD for approval.
With the existing yard located in the middle of the ambulance drop-off area, there were considerable logistics to be coordinated and the entire project team worked hard to bring the new O2 yard online as quickly as possible.
The TIO milestone was achieved and signed off by OSHPD. Months of coordination with the hospital staff, respiratory caregivers, and experts in the field of installation and inspections took place in order to arrive at the “Go Live” date. The cutover from old to new was scheduled to take place over a 10-hour period during the weekend. During this time, the hospital was back fed by temporary systems to eliminate any impacts to operations. CDPH was present to observe the work, and all inspections were completed as scheduled. The result is a much-improved system that is very beneficial to the hospital.
As stated by Sr. PM, Alex Pena, “The existing infrastructure was insufficient, but now it runs like a Ferrari!”
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Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center
Burbank, CA
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Emergency Department and Urgent Care Center
Q1- Much of last quarter involved ongoing work with drywall, MEP- overhead, in-wall, and roof, canopy framing, exterior waterproofing and site concrete, irrigation, power and lighting. Low voltage work was performed at the utility tunnel and central plant. Work required for the lead lining for the X-Ray and CT Scan rooms was also executed. Two significant cut-overs for Phase 3 electrical are scheduled for mid-February.
Pharmacy USP 797/800 Compliance
Q1- After the approval of Phase 3D last quarter, the phase is now wrapping up. The roll down door has been upgraded. Completed inspections are at 90%. Achieving a successful final air balance will permit final project sign-off by HCAI (formerly OSHPD).
Fire Alarm Device Replacement
The replacement of fire alarm devices in an active hospital is a complex process, requiring coordination with all hospital departments, development and management of extremely tight schedules, a continuous series of inspections and extensive fire watch requirements. Our team successfully planned and managed the replacement of hundreds of smoke detectors, heat detectors, and relays throughout multiple buildings on the Saint Joseph campus. This project was initially expected to run through February 2022 but was completed well ahead of schedule in early November 2021. This significantly reduced the impact to hospital operations and resulted in a substantial cost savings for the hospital.
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Methodist Hospital of Sacramento
Burbank, CA
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This last quarter, Bruceville Terrace, a Methodist Hospital skilled nursing facility in Sacramento, underwent refreshes in their administrative offices. This resulted in grateful comments from the excited staff, such as “What a huge change!” “It looks amazing - thank you all for the hard work getting BVT updated and looking great!”
Our PM team continues to support the entire Methodist Hospital team by guiding many active construction projects of diverse size and scope, including:
- Water Treatment Project
- Medical Gas Canopy
- Sub-Acute/Observation Room study
- CSPD study
- Café/Lobby Refresh
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OUR VISION
Deliver projects with expertise for the health of our communities.
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OUR MISSION
We passionately serve the healthcare community by utilizing our depth of experience and understanding the needs of our clients. We deliver consistent project success by uniting teams in the pursuit of common goals and providing comprehensive service through our proven ability to integrate ourselves into our client's unique culture.
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Our Team will be seeing these “trophies” making the rounds as we tally up their efforts to win our Wellness Project each month. Success entails the triple fulfillment of these three categories:
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Working out to increase your heart rate for 30 minutes each day
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Sleeping for a minimum of 7 hours each night
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Eating healthfully, i.e., consuming protein at each meal along with eating at least 3-colors of real food each meal (“real” meaning Skittles won’t count)
The person who achieves the highest point count will be able to proudly display the Triple Threat trophy at their workstation for the entire month. The person with the most opportunity for improvement will be motivated by receiving the Couch Potato trophy..
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AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION
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This year we continue to build on the foundation we created during 2021 with the theme of “the health of our employees”. Keeping physical health in the forefront of our thoughts helps us to make good choices, whether it be to choose the stairs over the elevator or choosing grilled chicken over deep-fried.
Through the observance of Heart Month in February, our desire is to help in supporting the American Heart Association’s efforts to raise awareness. February 4th was Wear Red Day. While a few of us were challenged to find something red in our closets, as a team we were cognizant of the reminder wearing red represented.
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While the New Year may involve parties, music, friends, (hangovers), undecorating, it also frequently involves a commitment to “resetting”. You’ll see below a pattern from amongst our team when they were asked for “a sentence about how your 2021 holidays were special”.
Family and community are two of the most significant social institutions in the development and daily lives of individuals. Together they shape who we are, instill us with values, define what we consider to be normal and abnormal and teach us about what is possible and not possible. Our families and communities print the many inner maps that we carry to orient ourselves to the world.1
- Our first year as "empty nesters" and it was GREAT. We went to our son's house to open gifts with their children, ate their food, and went home to a clean house!!!
- My 2021 holidays were special mainly due to the extra time I had to spend with family and friends. You only get so much time with your kids/family and I enjoyed having extra time to hang out with them.
- We had our daughter back from school for a couple weeks and got to enjoy our time with her.
- Spending time with family and friends around and on the holidays is always special because we don't always get to see these folks during the year. Family and friends seem to come back home during the holidays and it allows us to not only see one another but also to remind them of how much they mean to us!
- My 2021 holiday was special because it was the first year I got to spend it as a father with my amazing baby girl and my beautiful fiancé who both mean the world to me.
- I was able to travel to see my son and granddaughter. It was a joy for me to experience things new to her through her eyes.
- I'm grateful for the extra time with my Family, it was truly a blessing!
- Time off work while the kids were home was wonderful!
- We were able to spend time with my husband's side of our family for the first time in a few years (darn COVID).
- I was blessed with having my family in good health. We enjoyed making home-cooked meals while catching up on life.
- My 2021 holidays were special because we were able to enjoy time with our loved ones.
- We enjoyed a very warm holiday with our family in sunny Florida. It was Awesome to be in shorts and a t-shirt on Christmas Day!
- Despite COVID I was able to meet a new family member, my great-nephew, and his parents who traveled from out of state to be with the extended family for the holiday...YES, we were either vaccinated or received a negative COVID test prior.
- Spending my holidays with my family and with a new home made it so special.
- This was my family's first Christmas with our newborn son.
- The opportunity to have a Christmas Party for the Stahl Team, and have everyone show up, was amazing. This started a renewing of hope and faith for a return to normalcy. Then, to spend Christmas with the entire family, as in years past, again validated that we are coming out of this pandemic, one that imparted much pain and suffering, especially to children. I closed out the holidays (wedding anniversary - 47 years, also New Year’s) with my immediate family, quietly showing appreciation for all that I’ve been given. We had a great time.
One can’t help but wonder, did we all have this same level of appreciation for family before the onset of 2020 (when people were told to avoid contact with one another)? Has a virus prompted many of us to “click refresh”? It’s said that out of a bad situation, something good often comes.
But you may have to look for it.
1 Miller, Joshua (2001) “Family and Community Integrity,” The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 28 : Iss. 4 ,
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