Incomes his bachelor’s diploma in building administration from Illinois State College, Dan Patarozzi has been concerned in offering skilled building companies for greater than 20 years. A essential second in his profession occurred in 2012 when Superstorm Sandy hit New York. The emergency division growth he was engaged on on the time flooded, and Patarozzi led the trouble to deliver the undertaking again on-line inside 12 months.
Most just lately, Patarozzi utilized that emergency response expertise throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to assist tackle affected person surge. In March 2020, as New York Metropolis administration was requiring all hospitals to extend their capacities by a minimal of fifty p.c, NYC Well being + Hospitals and Federal Emergency Administration Company (FEMA) reached out to Skanska to assist convert three flooring of North Central Bronx Hospital right into a 120-bed ICU inside 90 days. Patarozzi says he knew the undertaking’s aggressive timeline meant he wanted to get undertaking companions aligned shortly to know targets, expectations, and scheduling.
Because the operations lead on the undertaking, Patarozzi held every day replace calls with all key stakeholders to ship up-to-date info and focus on essential quick-response gadgets comparable to expediting inspections. Patarozzi labored intently with the undertaking workforce to stipulate doable methods, whereas counting on his trade data and relationships to obtain tools on an expedited timeframe, together with a number of air dealing with items in six weeks.
Moreover, he addressed employee security and well being by putting in an exterior hoist on the constructing for all staff to entry the undertaking web site and applied every day well being screenings with an on-site paramedic. Via his management, the undertaking workforce delivered 20 ICU beds inside the first 30 days and the remaining 100 beds within the following two months.
Patarozzi additionally took the chance to maximise FEMA funding to replace the hospital, which hadn’t acquired main upgrades because it opened in 1974, together with buying further air dealing with items, upgrading the ability’s oxygen farm, and creating new administrative areas. “It’s wonderful if you take a gaggle of individuals, lots of whom had by no means labored collectively earlier than, and in a matter of weeks develop a cohesive workforce,” he says. And its success was achieved because of Patarozzi’s place on it.
What do you like most about your job?
I get pleasure from main groups and mentoring youthful professionals to assist them develop and grow to be leaders. I consider your workforce at work can be your loved ones. When you have teamwork and a way of household on a job web site and care concerning the particular person sitting subsequent to you, then I don’t know why you’d need to work another approach.
Who conjures up you?
My household at house and at work. It’s nice to have a job that actually impacts different folks’s lives in a optimistic approach.
What’s the subsequent main pattern you anticipate for healthcare design?
As a contractor, we’re seeing the healthcare sector take extra curiosity in collaborative supply strategies. Working below an built-in undertaking supply (IPD), “IPD lite,” or different related contract focuses on creating an built-in atmosphere, which results in higher teamwork between the designer, contractor, proprietor, and different key stakeholders.
What did you be taught over the previous 12 months?
The facility of teamwork. The North Central Bronx Hospital ICU undertaking is an instance that something is feasible when a workforce is totally dedicated and targeted on the top consequence.