St. Josef Hospital: Human dedication is the best cure
04. September 2020
The St. Josef Hospital in Vienna has made a name for itself: soon it will be the largest birth hospital in Austria, managing 4.000 births per year. The hospital has been rebuilt and comprehensively renovated during ongoing operations since 2014. The new inpatient wing was completed in 2017 and the Department of Pediatrics with Neonatology (for sick newborns and premature infants) was opened in 2018. In November 2019, four new surgery rooms and five intensive care bunks including side rooms were opened. The focus of the St. Josef Hospital is the expansion of the parent-child center on one hand and oncology (treatment of cancer) on the other. DELTA is responsible for project management as well as management of tendering procedures and contract management.
428 meetings and a lot of personal commitment
One can perhaps imagine that a construction project that has been running for 12 years (the master plan dates back to 2007) and has gotten through normal changes such as turnover of staff and conflicts, is not always easy. Conflicts are part of every project and cannot be avoided, but only actively solved. However, the dynamics resulting from different views and working methods can be used productively in a project. Several joint start- and team building workshops and the mediation training of our project manager Hildegard Utermöhlen made the finding of solutions in conflict situations easier and served the participants as an important learning process.
What unites us
If you work together for a good cause, it’s much easier to put disputes aside and come to an agreement. Above all, the St. Josef Hospital is characterized by its focus on humanity and the fact that all patients as well as mothers and children are lovingly cared for, but also by its medical expertise and structural and medical equipment. However, a modern clinic must not only be medically state-of-the-art and equipped with the latest technology; the building as a whole as well as the chambers and surgery rooms must meet many different requirements that not only support the daily work of the clinic but also offer patients the most pleasant stay possible.
Even after so many years in the project, our project manager Hildegard Utermöhlen still talks enthusiastically about it: “The opening of the NIMCU (the neonatal intensive care unit) in summer 2018 was a real highlight. It was an unbelievably great feeling because this high-tech medical facility is so extremely important for healthy development of premature babies, and I think it’s great how comfortable the mothers and their newborns feel there.”
Gerhard Fuchs, deputy administrative director at St. Josef Hospital, describes: “With the constructional realization of the master plan, we are setting the course for the next decades. The coordination between the highly specialized experts in medicine and care without construction site experience on one hand and the planners and construction workers on the other hand is very complex. In a project culture based on partnership, one can deal with unavoidable misunderstandings without accusations, unforeseen events can be solved creatively and everyone pulls together. This is why construction management that thinks the way we do, and deals with the factual and interpersonal challenges in a solution-oriented and appreciative manner, is extremely valuable for us. In DELTA, we have found the right partner for this.”
“A client like the Vinzenz Group in general and especially the project manager Mr. Fuchs are the main reason for the team-oriented and cooperative atmosphere in the project. The high level of commitment and, motivation and joy of the entire project team are a logical consequence of this”, explains Wolfgang Kradischnig, CEO at DELTA.
