Smooth and confident communication

Hôpital de Rumilly

The Centre Hospitalier de Rumilly, in Haute-Savoie, is a new hospital with 120 beds and 13,000 m² of floor space, specialising in follow-up care and rehabilitation.

What sets it apart is the combination of public services and private surgeries, which allows it to offer a broader range of treatment (private laboratory, private consultations, medical-psychological centre, outpatient service, follow-up care, cardiology, pharmacy, rehabilitation facility, public and private radiology departments and laundry).

The project was run using the ‘design-build’ approach, with a team put together by a local general contractor (Barel & Pelletier), a specialist architect (Atelier du Prado in Marseilles) and the Beterem group. The surveys and building work were completed in under three years, with the contract awarded 2011 and delivery at the end of 2013.

 Simple and clear communication between project stakeholders

The tight deadlines forced Beterem to be highly disciplined. And working with other subsidiaries of the group (SECMO for the structural aspects and Ouest Coordination for the scheduling, construction management and coordination) made it possible to manage relationships much more effectively than with sub-contractors or even co-contractors.

This smoother, quicker and more collaborative internal working arrangement led to a better relationship with the company, a genuine relationship based on trust. Indeed, the introduction of ‘question and answer’ sheets was especially useful in clarifying communication with the client, with the recording and classifying of information an essential aspect of long-term projects.

 Deadlines met

There was significant time-pressure. Taking as a starting point the scope for communication through this project, Beterem streamlined relations by creating information sheets for each of the 600 premises that made up the structure: specific problems, progress on issues, things to look out for… an unusual degree of detail for a construction site, albeit a large-scale one. Ultimately, the project ran smoothly day-to-day and the initial schedule was kept to. Indeed, delivery was three months ahead of the contractual schedule.

R_183_david-grunauer-166 David Grunauer: ‘The company was generally open to discussion and did not challenge every suggestion we had purely on economic grounds, but, on the contrary, was genuinely open to sound advice and technical support. This relationship based on trust was the key to the project’s success’.