Australia’s largest off-site hospital relocation
Queensland Health required a seamless transfer of 250 patients, staff and equipment from the existing Gold Coast Hospital into a new $1.76B facility, 5km away.
Recognising the need for meticulous planning and expert project management, they appointed APP to organise the commissioning of the new facility and the transfer.
Preparation
Over a two-year period we developed and implemented a strategic commissioning plan, to prepare the new hospital, staff and all operating systems to receive their first patients in September 2013.
In preparing the new facility, APP worked with staff from the Gold Coast University Hospital (GCUH) Project Team to:
- Manage the procurement and loading-in of 180,000 pieces of furniture, fixtures and equipment
- Train 6,000 staff members
- Validate the readiness of new operational systems using simulations and ‘mock trials’, to ensure the facility was safe and ready to support patient care.
Precision move
Before moving the 250 patients, we progressively moved more than 200 medical departments and 15,000 pieces of equipment over a three-week period.
We then transferred the patients over a two-day period. The transfer ran to a five-minute schedule, using a combination of ambulances, cars and mini-buses.
Achievement
The GCUH project was the largest off-site hospital relocation undertaken in Australia.
Through an unprecedented amount of planning we made sure that:
- All tasks leading up to the relocation were completed to schedule
- The state of the art facility could support ongoing clinical care from the moment the first patient arrived.
