Top award for project management in construction of Pavilion K

One of Quebec’s top prizes for project management has been awarded to the JGH for its multi-year process of planning, budgeting and overseeing the construction of Pavilion K, the hospital’s new acute-care wing.

Pavilion K was named 2016 Project of the Year in the public sector category at an awards ceremony in Montreal in early November at the annual symposium of PMI-Montreal, Quebec’s largest professional organization of project managers. This opens the way for the JGH to represent Quebec in the same category in the competition at the association’s global conference in the United States in 2017.

“I feel very proud, because Pavilion K was a tough project,” says Georges Bendavid, Director of Technical Services for CIUSSS West-Central Montreal. “Project management is a science—not something you just do with feelings—so it was really a major achievement for our team to be able to deliver this project.”

Yaël Harroche, Chief of Planning for the CIUSSS, agrees, adding that the award “is an extra validation for the 10 years that I’ve been working on this project. But I’ve played only one part on an entire team that deserves the recognition.”

Of particular interest to the judges, explains Mr. Bendavid, were the measures that were implemented to bring the project to life—specifically, the management of schedules, costs and risks, as well as procurement and purchasing, respect for the environment, and the human element.

“The judges looked beyond the final result of the project; instead, they focused on the way it was managed in order to achieve the desired goal,” he says.

The completion of Pavilion K proved to be especially complicated because of what Mr. Bendavid calls “the multi-generational aspect”—that is, the continuous turnover of various participants and stakeholders since the first set of plans was prepared in 2006. Health ministers and senior civil servants changed regularly, and even the JGH went through three executive directors and many different managers of the medical, nursing and other healthcare personnel.

In addition, says Mr. Bendavid, it was not uncommon for senior supervisors to request mid-stream changes to Pavilion K’s plans, in order to accommodate new forms of technology or new services that had not been envisioned when the project was conceived. This had a ripple effect that led to numerous revisions in various areas, including information technology and the mechanical and electrical systems.

In the end, says Mr. Bendavid proudly, Pavilion K opened on schedule, and this has greatly enhanced the reputation of the JGH as having the in-house expertise to manage a complex mega-project. “That gives huge credibility to our institution for the future,” he adds.