Greenbuild, the world’s largest conference and expo dedicated to sustainable design and construction practices, was held in San Francisco from November 12 – 16, 2012.  MSKTD’s Director of Sustainability, Landon Chapman, LEED AP, was among the more than 30,000 design and construction professionals who participated in the outstanding educational sessions, specialized workshops and networking events.  Chapman attended numerous sessions including Environmental Analysis and BIM; Logistics of LEED v4; Integrative Design Process and LEED; and LEED v4 – Tools and Resources.

Understanding the LEED for Healthcare Rating System was another session that particularly piqued the interest of MSKTD’s HealthCare Group.  Chapman is sharing his insights on the subject via a two-part, in-house presentation.  MSKTD looks forward to continuing to share our knowledge and expertise with all of our clients.  But our healthcare clients may find this to be of particular interest in 2013!

Nick Slater, MSKTD principal and architect/Healthcare Group leader; Mary Schafer, MSKTD Nurse Consultant/Practitioner Resource; Michael Bluhm, Weigand Construction project manager, and Patti Hays, Senior VP and Acting COO for Lutheran Health Network presented “Onward and Upward. A Case Study of a Hospital Vertical Expansion Project,” on Tuesday, October 2^nd at the Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo in Chicago, Illinois.  The case study on the Lutheran Hospital Fifth Floor Vertical Expansion project focused on how the owner, design and construction team successfully met the unique challenges involved with building vertically above an active hospital.

Good luck and best wishes to partner Chuck Braden on his retirement at the end of 2011.Chuck started his career with MSKTD in 1995, after heading up facilities departments at St. Joe and Lutheran hospitals.  He is responsible for establishing and growing MSKTD’s in-house Healthcare Group into a successful provider-focused service-oriented planning and design team.  When MSKTD decided to open and staff an Indianapolis office in 2001, Chuck made the move south and headed up that office.Not one to be the center of attention, Chuck’s retirement celebrations were pretty low key and quiet.  The best gifts he received were a great photo book from Nick and Bob of all the projects he’s worked on and a popcorn machine in the office for the week (yes, totally violating Al’s office popcorn-making rule).  More important to him were the people who wrote a note or stopped by to wish him well.Can’t believe in his 16 years I can’t come up with an embarrassing photo of him to post.  I feel I’ve failed somehow.  Since that wasn’t possible, the Indy boys photo-shopped some – stop by our Fort Wayne office and see the front desk slideshow that will run til the end of the year.Lucky for us, Chuck won’t be totally retired – he will still work with MSKTD on an as-needed basis – so you can still email or leave a voice mail message for him.  Now he might answer while sitting pool-side somewhere…We’ll miss you Chuck!!!!

The Lutheran 5th Floor Team gears up (or would that be “shears” up?) for the November 22nd ribbon cutting for the Lutheran Hospital 5^th Floor expansion project.  Another successful Lutheran Hospital project for this team – Lutheran Health Network, Weigand Construction and MSKTD – finished ahead of schedule!Read more about the event and project at Inside Indiana Business.

MSKTD staff never cease to surprise.  I mean, I’m used to architect/principal Nick Slater being mentioned in news articles for one of his projects like Lutheran Hospital’s 5^th Floor vertical expansion or Jay County Hospital’s addition… but the Living section?  Amazing how 3 kids change your life!Scroll down the article and check out Nick’s crockpot dinner recipes in the October 6^th edition of the Indianapolis Star’s Living section.Personal note: Nick, where were these cooking talents when I needed them for Open House?!!!

MSKTD’s Nick Slater, Mark Joseph, and Jim Kratzat were on hand for the grand opening of the new private patient rooms and MRI at Kosciusko Community Hospital in Warsaw, Indiana on Thursday, September 29th.For almost 20 years, MSKTD’s Healthcare Group has worked on renovation and expansion projects large and small at the hospital campus.Congratulations to the staff and administration of KCH, Lutheran Health Network and CHS for their continuing commitment to quality patient care. 

Ann Arbor, MI, March 28, 2011 – Thomson Reuters today released its annual study identifying the 100 top U.S. hospitals based on their overall organizational performance. The Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals® study evaluates performance in 10 areas: mortality; medical complications; patient safety; average patient stay; expenses; profitability; patient satisfaction; adherence to clinical standards of care; post-discharge mortality; and readmission rates for acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), heart failure, and pneumonia. The study has been conducted annually since 1993.  http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?id=46888 Congratulations to Reid Hospital and Health Care Services and to Kosciusko Community Hospital for being named to the elite group of 100 TOP U.S. Hospitals.   MSKTD Health is proud to be providing Master Planning and Architectural Services for these top tier organizations.

Chuck Braden, Jim Kratzat, Bob Harmeyer and Nick Slater were part of a ceremony to celebrate the completion of the first phase of Kosciusko Community Hospital’s capital improvements. MSKTD is proud to be a part of the team that is improving health care at KCH.