Making it work—together

Imma Franco and Andréane Pharand visit the Glen site.

The new McGill University Health Centre’s (MUHC) Glen site project is an exercise in collaboration.  In this interview, Imma Franco, associate director, Programs and Services Planning, MUHC, and Andréane Pharand, MUHC nursing coordinator for the Neonatology Program, discuss how critical collaboration is to the success of the Glen project.

Q. How important was it for clinicians to be included in the design of the Glen site? What did you learn from each other? 

Imma Franco (IF): Working with clinicians made the project infinitely better. As planners, we don’t work on the front lines, so the insight of our users is invaluable. 

The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for instance, was not a single-patient room unit in the original clinical plan. It was Andréane and her team who went to visit other NICUs to discuss the benefits of the single-patient room model and it was they who convinced me and my team to revise the clinical plan. If it wasn’t for their input, the NICU wouldn’t have had single rooms. Coordinating with over 800 clinicians was challenging, but it made for a very rich design process.

Andréane Pharand (AP): I strongly agree. It was so important and rewarding for us to have a voice. I think one of the most important things I learned from Imma and her team, is to always consider the big picture. The NICU is only one part of a very large and complex project, it’s good to remember how we fit with everyone else. It all has to work together. 

Q. Name one lesson you’ll take away from having worked on the Glen site?

IF: Health care and construction are very different (laughing). In health care, deadlines tend to be more fluid, there’s more room for discussion. In construction there’s a definite rigour when it comes to meeting deadlines. I think it’s made me approach my work more assiduously. 

AP: This project has given me wonderful learning opportunities. Helping to design the new NICU allowed me to visit other hospitals and to network with colleagues from all over North America. I got the chance to discuss not only clinical design, but the improvement of clinical practices. 

IF: I think the Glen site will be a reflection of all the different types of collaborations that are taking place throughout its design and building phases and that’s what will make it a truly special place for our professionals, patients and their families.