EXCERPT

Florida Hospitals Get “Second Skin,” Second Chance
Innovative System “Encapsulates” Existing Exteriors, Leaving Operations Undisturbed

By Peter Bowerman

Memorial Healthcare System administrators were concerned. And for good reason. The management of MHS, a family of six hospitals based in South Broward County, Florida, knew they’d dodged a bullet. While Hurricane Wilma, one of the deadly Florida storms of 2005, struck hardest 150-200 miles away from their Memorial Hospital West (Hollywood) and Memorial Regional Hospital (Pembroke Pines) facilities, the latter did incur minor damage. MHS realized all too well that shifting winds and the simple law of averages could just as easily put their facilities smack dab in the path of the next killer storm.

High Winds, High Stakes
The stakes were high. As Joe Alcure, head of construction for MHS, noted, “During a hurricane, patients’ families ride out the storm in the hospital to be with their loved ones. So, they’re all our responsibility. We have to do everything we can to ensure our facilities and everyone in them are protected.”

They’d heard the terrible stories of hospitals under siege from massive water intrusion – necessitating wholesale patient evacuations. They recalled Wilma’s extensive damage to the Broward County School Board Building in Ft. Lauderdale: 90% of the west side of the building destroyed, including 1000 windows. And reaching back to 1992, they remembered the catastrophic wake of Hurricane Andrew, which included Burger King’s Miami world headquarters – a structure similar to their own hospitals – where, as a result of the storm’s incredible power, according to Alcure, “The EIFS exterior peeled back like a sardine can.”

Could their hospitals – with primarily EIFS (Exterior Insulation and Finish Systems) cladding – withstand Category 4+ winds, Memorial administrators asked. Only an expert analysis could tell them for certain. MHS’s first call was to their 20-year building contractor, Miramar, Fl-based Universal Drywall, Inc. UDI promptly initiated extensive testing through Construction Testing Corp. in Miami, with Atlanta, Georgia-based building materials giant Sto Corp. providing the testing materials.

Weak Links Revealed
According to Lance Ruble, then-owner of UDI, “We did thousands of hours of testing on different wall assemblies for about a year.” The primary test conducted was for “negative pressure” (i.e., the “pulling” force a hurricane exerts if its powerful winds get behind an exterior wall), administered to ensure the existing EIFS stayed adhered to the substrate (i.e., concrete block or sheathing). Impact testing, which revealed serious vulnerabilities in the concrete block, was the clincher for MHS. Alcure recalls: “A 2 x 4 went right through the block. We realized at that moment we needed to put some high-impact protection on these buildings.”    

As Bill Englebrecht, then VP (now owner) of UDI recalls, “When we got involved, Memorial Regional Hospital, the flagship facility of MHS, was the product of nearly 50 years of gradual construction, with different types of structures and finishes added onto the hospital over time, and often varying widely within the same building.”

The bulk of the EIFS exteriors built on existing concrete block at Memorial Regional were extruded styrofoam adhered to substrate with mechanical fasteners. Every such area tested on the building failed the negative pressure test, perhaps explaining why the previous storm had inflicted some damage on the structure. As Englebrecht speculates, “We’re guessing that something hit the corner of the building, punctured the original EIFS enough to allow the wind to get behind the exterior, pull through the fasteners and rip a several-hundred-square-foot chunk of EIFS cladding right off the building.”

Strong Made Stronger
In addition, there were small portions of the Memorial Regional building complex where the EIFS (a Sto-PB system) had been adhesively applied on top of concrete block (CMU). While all those areas passed the negative pressure tests, MHS management still wanted the added peace of mind an extra level protection would provide.

Smaller, newer Memorial Hospital West was in better shape, and negative pressure testing revealed the vast majority of the existing EIFS cladding to be structurally sound. Observes Alcure, “We knew MHW was solid and could withstand 120 mph winds, but with past storms clocking winds of 165-170 mph, we knew it needed to be strengthened.”

So, while it wasn’t strong enough to stand up to future killer storms, it provided a solid enough foundation – which is where the story gets interesting…

Major Overhaul, Minimal Disruption
While the desire for a strengthened hurricane-resistant perimeter wall around both hospitals was straightforward, the logistics of executing such major repairs on operational hospitals posed some daunting challenges. Englebrecht recalls, “It’s not like we could shut down whole wings of the hospital to do a major overhaul. Normal operations had to remain undisturbed.” That called for a different approach – and some different products.

They called on Sto, with whom they’d had a solid 25-year working relationship, and about whom Englebrecht said, “We pretty much use them exclusively unless someone demands we use another product.” Sto had already provided materials for the earlier testing, to devise a creative solution that meets Missile level “E” standards (for “essential” structures). The result? A new product: StoTherm® Storm Systems – an innovative variation on EIFS.   

BREAK

Innovation Saves Money
Say Sto’s John Edgar, “We enjoy challenges like these. Rather than just tear down a building and spending a whole lot of an owner’s money to start over, we like to ask, ‘Using the existing structure and our materials, what can we do, within reason, to extend the life of a building – and with minimal disruption?’”

MHS found out with their two hospitals. Thanks to a trusted contractor, good materials and some creative thinking, both hospital management and their patients can sleep better at night. 

Says Alcure, “We can look a family member in the eye, knowing we’re confident we can take care of their loved ones. That means everything to us.”

END

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