Designed to provide state-of-the-art surgical services, the Interior Heart and Surgical Centre comprises 15 new operating room suites which incorporates two cardiac ORs and a hybrid OR, pre- and post-operative and cardiac intensive care unit, surgical support services, and a medical devise reprocessing department.

The client’s vision was to provide a world-class, patient-focused surgical center, and PCL’s consortium under the Public, Private, Partnership (P3) project understood this from the beginning.  During the pursuit process, the client recognized PCL’s strong track record of delivering complex healthcare projects and the significant innovations they included during the bidding process. The first innovation was to relocate the sterilization area to the third floor, adjacent to the operating rooms, providing operations efficiencies and user enhancements. The second innovation included PCL’s geotechnical/foundation solution as cost-effective and allowed construction to proceed six months ahead of schedule, which delivered this life-saving facility sooner than anticipated. PCL elevated the client’s vision by incorporating small but important details to enhance patient care, from meticulous functional staff, patient and visitor planning, materials selection and colors, to the provision of natural light for both patients and staff. PCL also relocated the existing clinics on the campus to enhance the patient’s experience during construction. Technological, surgical and clinical elements were designed and built into the project through extensive collaboration with the project team and medical staff to ensure that the Health Authority could attract the best surgeons from around the globe to work in this modern teaching facility. 

PCL demonstrated our solution-provider mentality numerous times and specifically through the project’s long-term settlement challenge. The Owners Geotechnical Engineer originally recommended preload, wire-wound prestressed concrete tanks, to deal with the long-term settlement potential for the building site, however this was anticipated to take nine to 12 months to complete. Our solution to the foundation challenge proved to be innovative, different and the first of its kind in the Kelowna area. The design minimized the settlement of the structure by removing the equivalent building weight in overburden, thus removing the need to consolidate the area, by preload, under the building prior to construction. To achieve stability, PCL’s team densified the soft clays by inserting rock columns, mitigating the risk of differential and overall settlement. This forward-thinking, innovative solution immensely reduced the overall budget and schedule while delivering a world-class, patient-focused surgical center.