The demand for children’s hospitals is growing. Families need access to specialized pediatric care, yet many existing facilities lack the space to meet demand and are not equipped with contemporary clinical care models, innovation, and technology in mind.

In states like Oklahoma —­ where the health care system ranks near the bottom nationally — the challenge is especially urgent. Families across all 77 counties often travel out of state for life-saving treatment, emphasizing the need for modern, accessible pediatric care closer to home.

Expansions and renovations of children’s hospitals play a vital role in meeting this demand. Construction of these projects can strengthen entire health systems by replacing aging infrastructure, increasing capacity, consolidating services, and creating spaces that enable cutting-edge research.

When planned and executed with care, expansion and renovation projects not only improve existing campuses, but also help healthcare professionals transform outcomes and give every child the best possible chance at care.

As a local construction management firm with over $11 billion in healthcare revenue over the last decade, JE Dunn’s healthcare experts deliver tailored solutions through high-touch, community-focused teams. Every project is founded on key best practices, ensuring project success and optimal outcomes throughout the construction journey.

Keep reading to learn some of our team’s best practices for expanding or renovating an active children’s hospital.

1. Communicate early and often to prevent disruptions to care

Major campus additions and renovations can require phased work and often-changing traffic patterns. Minimizing the impact these activities have on patient care is imperative. Early, effective communication partnered with ongoing collaboration between hospital leadership and the construction management team is key to successful hospital-centric construction planning.

When JE Dunn led the Oklahoma Children’s Hospital PICU renovation, the team partnered with staff in the surrounding units to establish highly effective, real-time communication protocols for use during emergencies, patient census changes, or in other special patient and staff considerations.

This planning and communication helped achieve buy-in, set expectations, and assured all stakeholders of the team’s dedication to patient safety, comfort, and healthy futures.

2. Prioritize patient safety and comfort

Constructing for our community’s tiniest patients means heightened consideration for patient safety and well-being is necessary — especially with patients who require extra precautions.

During the Oklahoma Children’s Hospital PICU renovation, the team posted floor plans on the floors surrounding construction and coordinated with charge nurses daily to identify and flag areas with extra sensitive patients. This approach ensured areas — and patients — requiring extra care and caution were well marked and communicated to the entire team.

Throughout the PICU renovation, JE Dunn’s healthcare experts also took extra care to reduce construction noise and vibration. In addition to utilizing vibration and sound monitoring and dampening techniques, the team also provided single-use, size-appropriate, noise-cancelling earmuffs to the hospital for use as needed with patients.

3. Advanced technology

Healthcare is evolving rapidly, especially with the emergence of AI, digital diagnostics, multi-disciplinary care teams, data-rich systems, and personalized treatment innovations.

When involved early in the conceptual design and planning process, construction managers can use forward thinking to ensure construction investments future proof the facility, setting providers up to be leaders of patient care, education, and research for decades to come.

JE Dunn’s healthcare leaders help craft flexible infrastructure plans that position facilities for adaptation of next-generation technology and future growth plans. When appropriate, we also utilize delayed medical equipment procurement strategies to allow the selection of cutting-edge equipment as late in the process as reasonably possible. Plus, the use of scalable plans helps accommodate for future patient volume and service lines shifts.