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Rose Companies BL Spille

Patients want two things out of their healthcare providers: technical skill and a caring demeanor. Tony Huser, senior vice president, believes the same thing is true of healthcare construction, and B.L. Spille brings the same qualities to the job site that a good doctor brings to the bedside.   

“One thing that’s really good about us is, like our mission statement says, “Buildings are built from the foundation up. Relationships are built the same way. Since 1963 B.L. Spille Construction Inc. has been building both.” Huser says.    

Formed in 1963, B.L. Spille is a design/build and construction management contractor whose specialties include the healthcare sector. More than 70 percent of the company’s work is for healthcare clients, and nearly 97 percent of that is for repeat or referred clients. This success is attributed to the company’s resources giving it the ability to handle the vast majority of the work in-house; as well as its constant devotion to ensue all stakeholders’ needs are met. B.L. Spille’s other areas of expertise include commercial, industrial construction and railroads facilities.    

The company’s original territory covered just Ohio, Indiana and its home state of Kentucky. However, in 1990, the company began to follow its clients on projects outside of the Midwest, and today, it’s licensed to operate in 23 states.

Under One Roof
B.L. Spille provides a single-source turnkey responsibility through its in-house LEED-accredited and healthcare construction-certified architects, engineers and project management professionals. Huser explains that this allows B.L. Spille to partner with clients and provide the best product to fit their wants and needs. “Our upfront planning with our clients allows us to excel in the demanding healthcare industry,” Huser explains. “We work with our clients’ varying schedules, budgets, maintenance procedures and safety regulations, while keeping the patients our first priority.   

“We have the resources that allow us to do the majority of our work in-house,” Huser adds. “This gives us the advantage of being able to spend all our times with our clients, rather than outside contractors.” Because so much of the company’s work is done in the healthcare sector, B.L. Spille employs a team of professionals specifically suited for healthcare.

Extra Caution
Working in the healthcare sector means a contractor has to be more sensitive than in building an office or factory. Huser says that although B.L. Spille has decades of experience building medical facilities, the company cannot afford to be complacent. “The challenge is to make sure we still meet the clients’ wants and needs,” he says.    

B.L. Spille has the unique challenge of maintaining the quality of its work, while ensuring it does not interfere with the delicate and important work that goes on around it. “The biggest challenges, of course, are ensuring that the patients are handled with the utmost care through sound barriers, dust partitions and cleanliness,” Huser says. “We must also be accommodating of the medical staff to ensure they have continued access to the resources needed to treat their patients.”   

The company is able to meet these challenges because of its broad range of capabilities, which allow it to maintain a consistent level of attention to clients’ concerns. “One of our big things is that all of our work is internal so we can work together to meet the No. 1 goal, and that is patient safety and owners’ wants and needs,” Huser says.

Tricky Jobs
Examples of B.L. Spille’s skill in the healthcare sector can be found throughout its portfolio. For example, the company recently installed a new MRI suite at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center’s medical school building. Moving the massive equipment into an existing space is difficult enough, but the project required moving it up three floors.   

“We ended up having to take the new [MRI scanner] up an elevator shaft three stories and take it through the hallway passages, remove all the walls and get it to its new location, which was an old pharmacy room,” Huser explains.    

The planning for the installation took three months, but the actual rigging and move took place over one weekend, including blowing out the walls and then putting them back up. “We had everything put back Monday morning for staff and students to be in safe working conditions,” Huser says.   

An example of the company’s planning capabilities can be found in its recent construction of a 43,000-square-foot urgent care facility for Mercy Health Partners in Liberty Township, Ohio. The facility was designed to accommodate physicians in orthopedics, physical therapy, gynecology and general practice. All of these different doctors brought different needs and concerns to the project, but Huser says B.L. Spille was able to incorporate them all seamlessly through its upfront planning. “That allows us to excel in the demanding healthcare industry,” he says.

Helping Hands
The tight economy has caused funding for new healthcare construction projects to dry up somewhat, Huser says. “The changes that we’ve seen on our end are obviously the insurance reimbursable rates for our clients and then the capital funding for several of our projects due to the insurance reimbursables,” he says. “We have a lot of proposals that are ‘hurry up and wait.’”   

Still, Huser says B.L. Spille is working with owners to try and guide them through the budgeting process to hopefully give them more confidence to see their projects through to construction. “What we would try to do is an open-book, open-door policy, so we try to show every dollar that the owner would incur on the project to try and help them balance their financials, try to budget the project and try to meet the minimum out-of-pocket expenses,” he says.   

Combined with the company’s skill and expertise in the healthcare sector, Huser believes this financial assistance will help B.L. Spille hold onto its place as a premier contractor. B.L. Spille has proven through its dedication, adaptability and industry knowledge of the healthcare industry, it will enjoy continued success. “We want to be first choice,” he says.