ARLINGTON, VA, OCTOBER 24, 2011 ‐ A collection of 70 healthcare professionals from all facets of the industry gathered for one of the first 6D BIM presentations of its kind in the nation. Suffolk Construction’s First Annual Crystal Ball Event, focused on the future of the healthcare industry, featured an hour‐long spotlight on the use of 6D BIM for facilities management and showed industry participants from across the country how the use of new, cutting‐edge technologies can help them adapt to the recent changes in healthcare.

 

“The more proactive we are in adopting new technologies, such as 6D BIM, and strategically applying them to both the construction and management of healthcare facilities, the more we are embodying the idea of smarter building, smarter managing and overall smarter thinking for the future,” said Peter Campot, President of Suffolk’s Healthcare and Science and Technology division and Chief Innovation Officer.

 

Campot expanded on the benefits the use of 6D BIM modeling can have on a project long after the construction team is gone, highlighting the ease in which facilities management personnel can quickly access relevant building information. Among 6D’s benefits is the ability of maintenance personnel to access virtual images and data that represent “as built” conditions of their buildings in a centralized location. Virtual models can contain information about building operations, such as M/E/P systems and system information including embedded attributes about those systems such as design criteria, operating specifications, part numbers, etc. The rapid advent of mobile devices parallel to the BIM revolution seems to have been a catalyst in both quickening and heightening the interest level. The concept of having information literally at one’s fingertips via an iPad or tablet device – with quick, easy, and portable access to building information – provides a compelling argument for BIM as an effective tool in facilities management.

 

Speakers from both Suffolk Construction and The Advisory Board Company came together at the event to highlight the importance of this and other cost and time‐saving measures in the new world of healthcare since the Affordable Care Act’s passage, and the impact these strategies will have on healthcare professionals in the short and long term. Since the Act’s passage, the industry has started coming to terms not only with resulting changes to its delivery and reimbursement systems, but with an aging, increasingly sick population, an ever‐increasing health care tab, and a worrisome national deficit.

 

Timothy Randall, Senior Director of Educational Services for the Advisory Board Company, detailed these changes in his presentation at the Crystal Ball event entitled “Healthcare 2020: The End of Uncertainty & Putting Healthcare On A Budget”.

 

“We have had an incredibly convulsive period of change in the industry over the last couple of years and our contention here is that what we have seen over the last two years has actually clarified rather than skewed the future direction of our industry,” said Randall.

 

Healthcare professionals, BIM experts, owners, architects, engineers and contractors alike listened as Randall, along with Peter Campot and Mike DiNapoli, Vice President and General Manager of Suffolk’s Mid‐Atlantic region, recapped the evolution of healthcare over the last year and illustrated how the transformation challenges us all to reign in healthcare costs.

 

At the conclusion of the conference, Randall unveiled the Advisory Board Company’s New Breed Health System Dashboard, which is an innovative program that will allow executives to assess organizations on the new dimensions of health system value and consolidate the process behind making these types of decisions. To view/listen to the webinar of Mr. Randall’s “Healthcare 2020: The End of Uncertainty & Putting Healthcare On A Budget” presentation, please follow this link:

http://www.suffolkconstruction.com/crystalball/crystal_ball.swf