AIR FORCE BASE FEATURED ON 60 MINUTES GETS NEW MEDICAL FACILITY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) May 14, 2009 -- The 4,161 -square foot medical aid facility at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada was actually built in Tennessee, then shipped across the country for placement on an awaiting foundation.
The 60 Minutes report, by Correspondent Lara Logan, focused on Creech’s unmanned aircraft systems and their impact on military operations. The aircraft are guided around the world by personnel based at Creech.

The construction concept to support personnel at Creech is called “component construction”, says Lieutenant General P.K. Carlton (retired), former US Air Force Surgeon General and part of the collaborative team that completed the project. According to General Carlton, “The project was struggling. It sat idle for several years because traditional builders couldn’t complete the project within the budget allocated.”

The turning point came during a 2007 project at Texas A&M University that explored innovative ways to re-build Iraq’s healthcare infrastructure. During a discussion of “component construction”, it became clear that the concept could be used for military healthcare facilities in the U.S., particularly in rural areas where the pool of construction contractors is limited. “It makes perfect sense. Component construction can produce quality facilities in a fraction of time and costs of traditional approaches”, says General Carlton who is now Director of Homeland Security for Texas A&M’s Health Science Center.
A collaborative team was formed by Texas A&M, Modern Renovators of Tennessee, healthcare integrators U3 Innovations of San Antonio, and Aspen Street Architects of Angels Camp, California. The team presented a concept to Creech Air Force base that would result in a completed project in only four-and-a-half months.

“The key”, says Modern Renovators Principle Gary Housley “is our ability to build the six components in the controlled environment of our factory in Tennessee, lay the foundation in Nevada while construction was underway in Tennessee, then ship the components to the site to install on the foundation.” Marc Sager of U3 Innovations, who spent 26 years as a US Air Force hospital administrator, says “Creech got a great building quickly within budget without compromising on the strict standards enforced by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers”. Sager says the Army Corp, “showed innovation using a different approach”.
Architect Dave Hitchcock who specializes in healthcare facility design says Modern Renovators responded in an “amazingly short period of time”. Of Modern, he said, “I don’t know of anyone else who could have put together such a quality product in such a small amount of time”.

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