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The Adelaide Dental Hospital is a South Australian Health facility distributed over three levels of the new University of Adelaide Health and Medical Sciences Building (AHMS).
The 89-dental chair hospital provides publicly funded specialist services for eligible patients, including adults with special needs or complex medical conditions, and provides the teaching facility to educate and train a large percentage of the State’s dental workforce.
Arup’s project managers guided the preparation of the 300+ strong Adelaide Dental Hospital team to relocate from its previous location two kilometres away, where they had been for 50 years, and adjust their operations to suit a reduced footprint in a new shared facility with minimal disruption of service for patients.
Arup’s advisory role responded to the unique needs of the South Australian Dental Service and focused on ensuring operational readiness of a leading medical facility.
Project Summary
300+ members of dental team
89chair dental hospital
Preparing a roadmap
The new Adelaide Dental Hospital was to be significantly different to what staff and clients were used to in their former home, which was a stand-alone building. The new Dental Hospital was to be in a reduced footprint at the top of a 12-storey building belonging to the University of Adelaide, and as a result, major changes to business operations were required.
Recognising the importance of involving clinical staff in the transition processes from current to future operations, Arup worked closely with the Management Team to develop a clear roadmap to Hospital Opening Day and then communicate with all stakeholders to generate confidence and minimise confusion.
Critical to the process was identifying the minimum acceptance criteria that would support the Hospital Opening Day and early identification of risks to achieving them. This then enabled risk mitigation plans to be developed and integrated within the relocation preparations.
Building capability
Arup recognised that the strong culture at the Adelaide Dental Hospital meant Managers were best placed to motivate and support their teams to execute a successful move. Once the roadmap had been developed, we focused on building the capability of Adelaide Dental Hospital staff as project managers and change agents. We helped identify skills gaps and provided training and workshops to plan and implement the transition and relocation.
This enabled the team to achieve a successful outcome: the Hospital could shut down for a minimal period and give the staff and patients the confidence that they could be operational within a short time frame.
“Arup’s ability to develop workable solutions and communicate successfully with the full range of project stakeholders and work groups were two of the reasons that our transition planning and final move went more smoothly than we had thought possible. ” Anne Pak-Poy General Manager Adelaide Dental Hospital
Successful relocation
With a tight schedule to relocate the Dental Hospital, our team drew on its strong project management and operational readiness experience to ensure a smooth transition into the new facility with minimal disruption to clinical operations.
The key to the project’s success was the development of a strong trusting relationship with the Adelaide Dental Hospital team.
The Hospital completed the relocation one day early and opened their doors to clients as planned.
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