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San Mateo Medical Center
Partnering with Global Innovators
Layers of Scope
The San Mateo Health Center is a large health campus consisting of six buildings which service a variety of different health providers. As the County of San Mateo began developing a program to address the deterioration of the nearly 70-year old hospital, the scope came to include demolishing two buildings, renovating one, and building two entirely new - all while keeping a hospital fully operational. This extensive scope was further complicated due to need to work with several jurisdictions to approve and facilitate these changes.
Finding Alignment
Since 2021, the Cobalt team has been able to provide guidance in managing such a vast and complicated scope. By asking the right questions- which are often the most challenging ones- Cobalt was able to study the project through the lenses of both an owner and a general contractor, and identify where to strengthen alignment across project stakeholders, as well as where to shift ownership of the right capacities to the right teams.
Establishing Baselines
“We were able to establish a baseline budget and schedule, and then could support our designer, contractor, and subcontractors to go ahead and execute it to the end. While there are always challenges to resolve, this project is on track, and everyone knows how to make their part successful,” says Cobalt Project Manager Mike Coles.
Optimized Focus
With the sharpened collective understanding of design, construction, and trade work scopes, the County’s Project Development Unit has been able to more fully focus on coordinating with the health providers to facilitate the continued operation of the hospital, which has had to adapt while couched in an active construction site. Throughout the course of the project, the hospital’s ability to continue providing care to all patients remained entirely uninterrupted.
The Project Team
