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Line up your vendors early on, says Ms. Mattson: biomedical engineer, anesthe-
sia group, supply and equipment vendors. "Get all those people in place," she
says. "If you think about what it's like to run a center, it's 10 times more difficult
to build one because you're starting everything from scratch." Keep in mind, says
Ms. Kronawitter, that it can take months to get an inspection from the state
department of health.
An experienced healthcare builder
Some early decisions can cause delays and costly problems down the road. For
example, the location of power supplies, vacuum pumps and suction lines must
be included in early architectural drawings, says Ms. Mattson. This underscores
the importance of hiring an architect who understands the business of surgery
and has a lot of healthcare design experience, one who knows which city per-
mits to pull, where the nurse call lights should go and why it's a good idea to
replace those cabinets with a small autoclave.
"A contractor that builds homes can't build a surgery center," says Sherry
Pace, RN, BSN, director of the Southern Eye Surgery Center in Hattiesburg,
Miss., which expects to open a second ophthalmology ASC 30 miles away on
May 1. "Make sure they've done this type of construction in the past, because, if
they have, they're going to make it go so much smoother for you."
Southern Eye hired the same contractor, architect and builder that built the
original 2-OR facility in 1994. The new 3,700-square-foot facility, a combined eye
clinic and surgery center, is about 70% done. It will have 1 OR; a second operat-
ing suite is a knocked-down wall away on the blueprint.
"Don't overbuild. You'll be stuck with a big loan and with areas that are never
utilized," says Ms. Kronawitter. "You can always design to expand down the
road."
If, as expected, Southern Eye's satellite facility opens in May, the project will
have taken 11 months — a little too long for Ms. Pace's liking. "We should be fin-
ished by now," she says. But a couple of hiccups courtesy of Mother Nature
