Speaker Spotlight: Jaimee Nardiello of Zetlin & De Chiara

Partner Insights: What major trends do you expect to emerge in the healthcare construction industry over the next year?

Jaimee Nardiello: Telehealth and the use of technology in medicine will continue to grow so we should expect to see construction of the technological infrastructure to support that. I expect we will see renovations of our existing medical facilities to allow for social distancing in common areas, upgrades to sanitization and air filtration systems and pre-screening upon entry. We may also see the construction of more flexible healthcare spaces. For example a medical space that can convert from an outpatient facility to an ICU. Along these lines, Walmart recently opened a medical mall healthcare facility where one can access primary care, dental, vision, diet and exercise classes, lab work, diagnostic tests and more all under one roof. More entities, especially in rural areas are using modular construction to meet their new healthcare needs.

PI: The pandemic underscored our need for more healthcare and medical facilities. Do you see an opening for the industry to repurpose distressed assets to meet this growing demand?

JN: There was an upward trend in investors repurposing distressed assets in the diagnostic and senior living sectors to meet healthcare needs in 2019 prior to the pandemic. That trend seems to be continuing post-pandemic.

PI: What policies and innovations can experts tap into to help guide the industry as it continues to rapidly evolve?

JN: Our firm has stayed on top of the industry trends and understands how the changes such as the implementation of additional technology and the more flexible treatment spaces will benefit our clients. We are working with clients to prepare agreements for some of these innovative new treatment facilities.

PI: How should the industry approach new projects to ensure they stay on time and in budget as markets nationwide respond to the increasing need for more healthcare facilities?

JN: As a whole the industry will be able to transition a lot of the techniques we use on our construction projects to the healthcare industry. We can expect to see the continued use of integrated project design for the construction of hospitals. By integrating the entire team from the beginning, including the owner, architect, engineer, general contractor, designers, practitioners, and at times the BIM and Revit teams, the process creates a team approach towards a common goal of finishing on schedule and budget. Often the critical contractual provisions, such as liquidated damages, which assesses costs against a contractor who doesn’t meet certain schedule milestones, or incentives which reward contractors for meeting certain schedule and/or budget milestones are beneficial tools.

Zetlin & De Chiara is a construction law firm representing owners, developers, contractors, architects and engineers with all of their design and construction needs