Advocate Aurora Health—one of the largest and most progressive health systems in the country—is in the midst of a $1 billion capital investment program. To ensure its facilities are built as efficiently as possible, we partnered with the system to create a modular strategy to reduce waste, add value and optimize project results.

Previously, we teamed up with Advocate Aurora Health to create consistent design standards for patient rooms, exam rooms, operating rooms and other repetitive spaces. This standardization helped ensure consistency in quality, a reduction in consulting and design fees and accelerated project delivery. Building on this successful partnership, we have taken Advocate’s design standards for patient bathrooms and exam rooms and modularized them for enhanced predictability, prefabrication and easy installation.

To date, we’ve fabricated 405 modular rooms for Advocate—122 exam rooms and 283 patient bathrooms. Together, these modular rooms have helped reduce overall project schedules by 15-20%, truck deliveries by nearly 70%, and time-sensitive costs by up to 12%. Based on the success of these modular units, Advocate is now exploring opportunities for employing modular inpatient rooms in future construction projects.