Constructing with Care: 5 Ways to Enhance Safety on Active Healthcare Campuses

As Safety Week brings industry-wide attention to jobsite safety, it is a timely reminder that on active healthcare campuses, safety is not an initiative. It is the standard. Construction in these environments happens alongside patient care, where even small disruptions can have serious consequences.

DPR Construction has worked on some of the country’s most complex healthcare campuses, and we’ve seen firsthand how planning and communication can reduce risk, protect patients and staff and maintain trust across teams, all of which help contribute to predictable outcomes. 

For healthcare leaders and facility operators, understanding how safety is embedded into construction can help you make more informed decisions, ask the right questions and set clear expectations from the outset. 

Here are five practical strategies that help keep patients and staff safe during construction.

1. Engage Clinical Teams from the Start

Engaging clinical stakeholders early is essential. Before logistics plans are finalized, it’s important to understand how the facility functions day to day—what entrances are used for deliveries, which routes are critical for patient care and where noise or disruption can’t happen.

Project leaders have shared that early engagement with clinical staff has helped avoid costly rework while also increasing trust. Even something as simple as walking the site with clinical leaders can surface details that might otherwise be missed. On one project, we discovered that a corridor marked for temporary closure was a main path for lab sample transport. A small change avoided a big disruption and became an important lesson learned.

2. Be Thoughtful About Access, Egress, and Flow

Hospital operations are dynamic. A construction detour or delivery that interferes with shift changes or emergency vehicle access can compromise safety or delay care. On many hospital projects, we’ve implemented just-in-time delivery and logistics coordination to avoid peak traffic hours. In collaboration with clinical operations, we developed alternate staff routes and provided advance communication about any changes. The American Hospital Association eBook we contributed to underscores how strategic planning around access and flow can lighten the burden on care teams and prevent delays in service. 

We also recommend developing pedestrian detour maps and working with your communications team to keep patients and staff informed. These are operational decisions that directly affect safety and the patient experience, not just construction issues. 

3. Go Beyond ICRA: Control Noise, Vibration, and Airflow

ICRA provides a strong framework for infection control, but facility safety goes beyond containment. Noise, vibration, and air quality can all impact healing and workflow.

On several of our healthcare projects, we’ve coordinated demolition and other high-impact activities around surgery schedules and used real-time monitoring to control airborne particles. These safety measures not only protect clinical operations, but they also preserve confidence and continuity of care.

We recommend incorporating vibration and air quality monitoring into your project scope early and working closely with infection prevention teams to determine thresholds and mitigation plans before construction begins. This proactive approach helps avoid unplanned shutdowns, patient complaints and delayed procedures, all of which can ripple across clinical schedules and staff capacity.

4. Use Visual Planning to Spot Problems Early

Just like in healthcare, early detection in construction means more positive outcomes. Virtual Design & Construction (VDC) and the tools it includes like Building Information Modeling and 4D scheduling have become essential for visualizing construction in context. These tools allow everyone from your facilities team to construction partners to see how different phases will unfold and be able to anticipate conflicts before they become an issue.

Many teams we have worked with have found that using visual modeling helped them coordinate critical shutdowns without disrupting imaging services or sterile processing. They provide a clear roadmap for phasing, delivery coordination, and contingency planning so work doesn’t come to a standstill.

For healthcare executives, asking how visual planning is being used on your project is a simple way to evaluate whether the construction team is accounting for operational realities beyond design drawings. 

5. Make Safety Personal

We’ve seen jobsite safety improve when teams understand the mission of the facility and the real impact of clinical work. At one hospital site, we installed a “Why We Build” board that featured photos and stories from hospital staff. That simple gesture reminded crews of the impact their work has on the patients and staff inside.

Daily huddles with construction teams are also an opportunity to emphasize these values on top of the regular sharing of updates. When workers know that they are building next to a NICU or oncology wing, they often approach the job with greater care.

This cultural element of safety can be fostered by aligning expectations early and encouraging open communication between clinical and construction teams.

Key Takeaways 

• Engage early. Input from staff leads to better decisions and fewer disruptions.
• Plan for flow. Understand how people, equipment, and supplies move through a facility.
• Think beyond infection control. Noise, vibration, and air quality all also affect care.
• Use visual tools. Technology uncovers hidden risks and helps make better choices.
• Connect the mission to the work. Build a culture of care across the team.

Construction in healthcare settings requires more than technical expertise. It calls for a clear understanding of how care is delivered and how construction activity can affect daily operations. When safety is integrated into planning and execution, construction becomes a support to patient care rather than a disruption. Whether you are renovating a single department or expanding an entire campus, these strategies help reduce risk, maintain continuity, and keep your project on track. On a healthcare jobsite, every week should be Safety Week.