Constructech Magazine recently announced the 2009 Vision Award winners at their annual Technology Day conference in Chicago.  I was on hand to see one of our customers, Jim Bostic of St. Joseph Health System, win the Gold Award in the category of Corporate Owner: Healthcare.

From right to left: Peggy Smedley, publisher of Constructech Magazine, Jim Bostic, AVP of Construction at St. Joseph Health System, and Mark Sawyer, CEO of Vico Software 

St. Joseph Health System is a not-for-profit Catholic health care system sponsored by The Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange.  The system operates fourteen hospitals, three home health agencies, and multiple physician groups throughout several western (USA) states.  Owing to the importance of facility delivery in their overall mission and to effectively manage their $2B+ system-wide capital program, SJHS runs a progressive construction division.  Jim is the assistant vice president of construction operations and a member of SJHS's multi-disciplined executive management team.

The 2009 Vision Award went to SJHS based on their exploitation of Virtual Design & Construction on the Mission Hospital project.  Well into the construction phase, this project team foresaw some problems and took decisive action.  Problem analysis and resolution all took place in a virtual mock-up environment before any real problem was encountered in the field.  The team was able to document a savings of $1.8M in hard costs and avoided ten weeks' of project delays using Vico's Virtual Construction^TM methodology.  To learn more about this case study, you can view The Mission Hospital webinar and experience a fly-around the steel and glass virtual mock-up.

We know that this example, while noteworthy, is a fraction of what Jim and his team have done to foster innovation and secure real value for SJHS.  Not all examples are as easily traced back to quantifiable costs and schedule delays.  Such is the nature of problem avoidance.  We have had the pleasure of working for SJHS on half a dozen construction projects, and look forward to the continued success of Jim's team.  Our congratulations go out to Jim Bostic and St. Joseph Health System for this well-earned 2009 Vision Gold Award.

Our thanks go out to the staff at Constructech for hosting the event and for the weeks of work that go into researching and scoring each award category.