Healthcare Facilities Network
The Healthcare Facilities Network podcast highlights the essential role of facilities
management in delivering high-quality patient care. Hosted by Peter Martin, this show brings you expert insights on the issues, trends, and solutions shaping the future of healthcare spaces. Learn from industry leaders and discover ways to drive positive change in your facility.
Healthcare Facilities Network
Bob Feldbauer on AMPF’s Future & Pediatric Innovation
Bob Feldbauer is helping lead two major transformations — one at a national organization, and one at a world-class children’s hospital.
In this episode, the Healthcare Facilities Network sits down with Bob to talk about the future of the Association of Medical Facility Professionals (AMPF), where he’s currently President-Elect. From the organization’s growth since 2019 to his goals for 2026 and beyond, Bob offers a forward-looking view of AMPF’s evolving role in the industry.
We also dive into his work at Children's Health in Dallas, where he’s serving as project executive on a $5 billion pediatric campus in collaboration with UT Southwestern, one of the most ambitious healthcare construction projects in the country.
If you’re interested in where healthcare facilities leadership is headed, this episode is a must-listen.
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Did you ever think in your career, when you were starting, could you have envisioned talking about these types of cool issues? You know these types of issues in the career that you started at and now where we are in 2025? Just listening to you talk about it, it's kind of wow, it's a whole new horizon.
Speaker 2:No, it is, and really our profession is very fastly if that's a word evolving. You know it's no longer the traditional maintenance leader role, you know it's really. We're becoming strategic partners within, you know, integral to the whole operation efficiency, cost management of your organization, patient safety.
Speaker 1:There's a major crisis facing healthcare facilities management. We have aging employees, aging buildings and aging infrastructure. We've created the Healthcare Facilities Network, a content network designed specifically to help solve, for these three pressing issues in healthcare facilities management. We bring on thought leaders and experts from across healthcare facilities management, all the way from the C-suite to the technician level, because, at the end of the day, we're all invested in solving the aging issue. Thanks for tuning in. Look at our videos. You will find that as a theme across our content. This is the Healthcare Facilities Network. I'm your host, peter Martin. Let me just first welcome my guest, bob Feldbauer. Robert Feldbauer, bob, can you introduce yourself?
Speaker 2:Hi, thanks, pete. I'm Bob Fellbauer. I am the Chief Facilities Officer with Children's Health in Dallas and glad to be back so soon, pete.
Speaker 1:So Bob gives a little hint for why we're doing this. Glad to be back so soon. I thank Bob for his time. Yet again, we had a little not we, I had a little snafu in our first recording. Bob kindly joined me last week and we recorded a great show, and it is always my fear always that we record and when I go to play back there's nothing there. Well, in this case there was something there. Bob's voice is there, but Bob wasn't. So in the recording you are about to see, you will see me as well as some visuals, but you won't see Bob, and Bob kindly offered to come back onto the show so that you can see what he looks like and so that he can say a word or two. But Bob thanks, I apologize again for that, but you came up with a really good solution to appear alive.
Speaker 2:Well, pete, in our business we're nothing but resilient and able to pivot, and some may argue that this actually improved your show by not having my face for the whole hour. So we'll go with that. But you know, part of what your listeners are going to hear is we. I appreciated you asked me about the Association of Medical Facility Professionals, which I'm the president-elect. I'm not going to rehash that, but it's a very good organization. So thank you for that time. In fact, as we sit today, I flew out late yesterday in order to join dinner with the San Diego Chapters board New chapter as about two weeks ago. Very great group of folks enjoyed my dinner immensely. They have their first meeting today and 160 people signed up and I'm sure it's not just to hear me speak. So that kind of reiterates some of the points your listeners will hear that if you don't know about AMFP, please look for it in your local town or areas, because it's a great organization and I'm sure you'll find value. So thank you again for allowing me to speak about that.
Speaker 1:No, it is my pleasure and you know that we talk about it, so we don't need to rehash it. But 160 is a pretty good number to have. I'm sure you're pleased.
Speaker 2:Oh, very pleased and just show us the enthusiasm, in addition to just great leaders across the country that are starting these chapters. So thanks to everyone involved. And again, not to rehash our conversation, but I just would like to reiterate people should look it up. It's a great organization, so thank you for that.
Speaker 1:Of course. So with that, I'm going to say goodbye, bob. Why don't you just say goodbye to everybody so they can see what you look like? You should say goodbye. So please listen to the rest of the conversation. Bob, thank you, and here we go on to the show. I am very happy and pleased to be joined by an old friend today, robert Fellbauer. Bob Fellbauer, who joined us probably two years ago, just when we were starting with Healthcare Facilities Network, and then also, bob, you and I I don't know if you remember when we were just doing the podcast form talked to you relative to your overseas experience and what that was like to work, you know, away from the country for so many years. So Bob's back again. Bob, thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you, peter. That was a fun one for your listeners and may not. Well, I think we were in the middle of COVID at the time too, so we're talking about some of the ramifications of that on projects and everything. So I enjoyed that episode and, for listeners who may not have heard, that a couple of years ago it broke me pretty good.
Speaker 1:So I was glad to talk to you because you gave that great perspective of what it's like to work over there the opportunities, the challenges, and then coming back home.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All right yeah.
Speaker 2:I appreciated that episode and thanks again and thanks for inviting me back.
Speaker 1:My pleasure. So at the time you were at the University of Cincinnati Health System. Now, bob, would you mind telling folks where you are introducing yourself, who you are, where you are, what you do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, bob Feldbarm with the Children's Health System of Texas down in Dallas, moved to this position in October of 23. Decided to make the move down from Cincinnati Number one back at UC Health. We had finished up phase one of our master plan. Because of COVID and other reasons, they were going through some financial constraints which prevented them from moving on to their next phase of the master plan and as part of that, you know, taking a reduced role of my remaining career time, of not being involved in major projects. This opportunity came along at Children's Health. We'll hopefully talk a little bit about what I'm involved with down here, but tremendous organization Really very pleased that we made the move down. My wife and I love Dallas. I couldn't be more pleased with Children's Health. It's the best organization I've worked for and you know that's saying a lot of what worked first and very good organization. So it's kind of the capstone of my career being here at Children's Health and working on the large project that again, I hope we have some time to dive into today.
Speaker 1:Yes, definitely want to get into your large project. Can I just ask you a question? I also want to talk to you, obviously, about your role as president of AMPF, but before that, when you were considering moving from Cincinnati to Dallas, you talked about kind of the career opportunity and the chance to be involved in another massive project with children. But were there other considerations for you? And the reason I asked that, bob, is because sometimes folks are a little bit hesitant to move on from opportunities and there's, you know they're concerned because the market at the time was a little bit, you know, a little bit topsy turvy. Did you have any concerns or were you full bore going forward?
Speaker 2:No, it was really full bore. The position itself was a new position for Children's Health. It was an elevated facilities role as the chief facilities officer and with responsibilities of leading one of our committees of the board, co-leading with one of our board members and at that level. So that really resonated with me and I had some preliminary interviews with children's health, with some of the executives that report to the ceo and uh, by virtual interviews, came down in person. The first interview uh was with the ceo been here almost, if not 25 years now. Very well accomplished individual.
Speaker 2:But we had one-hour interviews set up with 45-minute interviews, 15-minute breaks in between, scheduled the whole day. First one was the CEO Doe and Mr Berovich came in about 10 minutes before the hour, said I heard you're here, do you mind if we get started? I'm like, well, you're dime. And he came in and again we were supposed to have 45 minutes. It went an hour and 20 minutes. He went 10 minutes past the hour so we're already going in.
Speaker 2:But it was a really great conversation, very smart questions. I thought at the CEO level that not all CEOs can get into that level of detail and really have a good conversation. So coming out of that very first interview that morning, I was convinced, at least on my part, this was the organization for me and the fit that I want to be. So again, the whole leadership team is great. My boss is chief operating officer. They were actually recruiting that position the same time they were recruiting the one I'm in, so they announced his selection a couple weeks after I was on board when I came in person for interviews. So we had a chance to do a virtual interview as well before I made the final sign on the line commitment. But another great individual that really pragmatic as an engineer by background and you know, assist any things in systems and processes. And going back to our interview, we talked about Pete, our podcast, if you remember I talked about. I tend to think in systems, processes of people, so really pragmatic person. So a great team to be after.
Speaker 1:You talk about that. You know the interview we did before. I think back to you know I remember you were talking about the Internet of Things and AI, and so this was probably what two and a half three years ago now, bob. And it is amazing to me how, since that time and again, whenever I hear the internet of things, I always kind of think of you because you would talk about it. It is amazing the speed with which things have accelerated over the last three years in those two areas. Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And with the ability to think more about that stuff as you're building a new campus. Those are certainly some of the things we hope to introduce to this new facility as we move forward.
Speaker 1:Moving on relative to big projects and talking about that via your own podcast or something, you've certainly got the experience to do it, and these big projects, as you know, they don't come along that frequently, and this will be your second or third, so certainly an opportunity there. Let's start, though, bob, with you're president-elect for AMP right Now. Amp is the Association of Medical Facility Professionals. Congratulations, thank you, and I have to admit and I want you to tell us, please excuse me a little bit about AMP. I think, when I saw that come through on your LinkedIn feed, that you were the president-elect. I was like AMP, I don't think I had heard of it before. Tell us what is AMPF. What's it like to be president? Give us a little details, please.
Speaker 2:If you haven't heard about AMFP yet, you will soon. But let's start with their trajectory. They formed in 2019, and the leaders who started this came out of HCI, the healthcare Institute, which happened in Alliance Parker with yes. So when, if not, went away from that model, these individuals said hey, you know, let's, let's create out on our own and start our own professional Association. So, pete, what a great time to start a professional membership organization right before COVID killed us. No ability to do in-person meetings or any of that stuff. So you have to. You know, healthcare facilities, people are nothing but resilient. I think that's one of the reasons that AMFP has been able to, you know, not throw in the towel at the time, because you couldn't have picked the worst time to start an association. You could, so you know, but their view was that by having association, it brings together a wide spectrum of different perspectives. You know the real estate, the design, the vendors, suppliers, medical office developers, academics. We could drive innovative solutions through this diversity of expertise. So they kept going and it's really been remarkable. So 2021, which is a short four years ago, they had eight chapters and 650 members. 2022, it grew to 11 chapters and they broke the broke the thousand member at that time. In 2022, in 2023, they're up to 19 chapters with 2,800 members. Now, today, we have 32 active chapters with uh 40 over 4,900 members. So we'll be breaking 5 000 members. So clearly, this road trajectory makes amfp one of the fastest growing professional associations of health care and I believe you know, by, just by the world, that validates their approach and and our mission. So, uh, in 2025, we do have nine additional chapters that are going to be coming on board. Um, yep, this year. Uh, nebraska just had their kickoff a week ago. We have st louis, northeast florida, san diego, which I'm going out to have that kickoff. Uh, one of our board members goes to every launch of a new chapter. Uh, cincinnati soon and I'm hoping my friends in Cincinnati will invite me to that. K-pop, iowa, louisiana and several others. So it's been a really amazing story to work with this organization.
Speaker 2:So, as part of that in 2025, I assume, president-elect, this is a new position for AMFB and really my goal, as I stated it, as I sought out the position and they were talking to me about it is really to transition the national board from an operating board to a governance board. So again back to the systems, processes and people. I think I have the ability to help them out with that. I think I have the ability to help them out with that. So when AMFP was new, by default they had to be directly involved in day-to-day operations. They were a small startup organization but now, as they've grown in their current financial situation, they've matured enough that they really need to transition to a governance board of directors that focuses on strategic oversight. So part of that, we'll have the board responsible for setting long-term strategy and vision to best support our local chapters, and the local chapters is really where the strength of this organization lies. So, even though I started this position as president-elect in January, I have been elected that previous October, in 2024.
Speaker 2:At that time, even before I became officially president-elect, I got involved in a couple things that will assist in my time as president, certainly, but as president-elect as well. I was involved with the team to rewrite our bylaws. As our organization grows, we really had to write bylaws and put new board structure in place and the things that come with that. So I was involved in writing those bylaws. And, by the way, for any amfb uh listeners, uh members who are listening out there you received an email last week to vote on these new bylaws, so please look for your email vote. If you have any questions about it or concerns about it, contact me directly. You're not allowed to answer any of those, but please vote. Please read them, please vote. And I also chaired a committee to select an association professional association management company. So we went through a competitive RFP process. We've selected a company, had them on board and that included hiring our first executive director for AMFP through that firm. So we're really excited about that. So going into 2026, really my goal as president then will be to transition fully from this operating board to a governing board, and we're putting the right things in place now. But really to make sure we come through that we set up a strategy that's robust enough and really honor the hard work we're founding members who are, you know, now taking a deserved rest from all the tremendous work they've put into this and handing the keys over, if you will, to a new set of leaders on the board.
Speaker 2:But one cool note that you might be interested in the international. We talked about my international experience. The International Federation of Facility Managers is an international group that meets up various countries around the world each year. The last time they were in the United States was in 2003. They had their conference in conjunction with the ASHE Annual that year. In 2026, during my term as president, they will be holding their conference in conjunction with AMFP at the Health Care Design Conference and Expo in Moarlis in 2026. So that's going to be a really great event and we're thrilled to be their host. And it's been over 20 years since they've been in the US, so we're glad to get them back here. I'm glad to be posted.
Speaker 1:Relative to chapters, are you guys focusing on states as opposed to regions with your chapters, or how big are the chapters, not people-wise, but geographic-wise?
Speaker 2:They're more local right now. So one of the things the board needs to decide as part of our strategy moving forward is we're having great success at the local level with the chapters um, and then we believe that's what our strength is. But as we grow, do we need to start looking at regions so that we can consolidate some of the education and symposiums and other stuff we do? So that'll be part of the outbirth of, you know, getting larger and continuing to refine the needs of our members, as they told us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the local angle is probably pretty important right, Bringing the education and bringing it to the people in the hospitals who may not have the time, the money, the resources to go national.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think it's a good deal for healthcare end users. It's $95. I mean, you take your Mayfeld to dinner plus wine and you're paying more than that, so it's really a tremendous deal for healthcare users. It's interesting what we're finding. Again, it's more of a diverse work than maybe some traditional healthcare facilities managers work, than maybe some traditional healthcare facilities managers who really do have a full spectrum of all the suppliers, vendors, everyone that helps with the built environment, which we think is private strength. But what we're finding on the healthcare end users, we're really finding that the VP level and of our equivalent, the facilities executives and healthcare users are really finding AMFP to be a great source of collaboration and networking. Our networking events.
Speaker 2:Like for me when I got to Dallas, I was fortunate in that Dallas is one of the early chapters in AMFP and pretty mature and not knowing anyone in Dallas. And you know, in healthcare you really need a Rolodex. You know old things happen at 3 o'clock. By the way, for your younger listeners, rolodex is not an app, it's some old Clark indexes to have. Anyway, it really was a good source for me to start meeting people in the environment. What I liked about it, what really sold me is I first went to a lunch at 2R where it was a person in a firm that did strategy for hospitals across the country and really talking about what they're finding, where help here is going, and it took it down to the hospital level.
Speaker 2:For people in our position, how does this resonate? How do you lead the discussions within your organization? So it's just a different level of education session than I had seen in other organizations. And then I went to the first networking. They do have just peer networking meetings as well and I thought, well, I'll go. But I had a little bit of hesitation because when they see Children's Health and they know a $5 billion project, they thought you know you're going to halt your meeting and I thought if that's the case, I'll make you an accident. I do want to go and start beating people in the Dallas area and it wasn't that at all. It was very much a relationship building tech network. It's not vendors there trying to sell. So I really appreciate that Aspel about getting involved in the board or Texas organization.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't think that Vulture. I don't think the Vulture model works in the board at the Fort Texas organization. Yeah, I don't think that Vulture. I don't think the Vulture model works in the long term. Are you guys specific, bob? Is Anth specific to the built environment? And if you had said that, I apologize. So is it? It's more PDC focused as opposed to engineering focused, or do you still draw from the engineering side?
Speaker 2:No, probably, bob, and even beyond that. You know looking at, you know medical, looking at like developers are doing medical office buildings through hospitals and the whole gamut in between. So it really is looking at the whole spectrum. And you know, one other area that I think people come in that really seem to appreciate is people in health care or on the real estate side, because they don't really have a home in another organization that focuses on that. But they could get some education on that portion as well. So we're really trying to be a diverse set of expertise and have the whole spectrum of the bolt environment beyond the walls of the hospital interesting the developer angle is an interesting one these days, and I'd imagine that's probably one that becomes more critical as we go forward yeah and uh, I was out in benict earlier this year to buy their suppositions and and really had a great session on that with with some developers and how they're looking at things across the country and various markets.
Speaker 2:So again, it's really bringing in that expertise to help you innovate within your own organization.
Speaker 1:I was just going to ask you about that, bob, the developer angle. I was just going to ask you about that, bob, the developer angle, because often developers may have a bit of a different focus than you as a VP of FM. Longer term patient satisfaction developers this is a gross characterization but sometimes in and out make some money. I mean, they're developers, that's their role. How do you bridge that gap? Or is it relationships, education, communication, so that when you're in these projects with developers, the team is aligned and that the work on the back end to get that facility up and running, to see patients, the commissioning, the transition to operations, all of that is in place? How do you bridge the gap or how do you make sure you're aligned? I guess is a better way to put it.
Speaker 2:Well, for me personally, it was about education and really learning from the mindset of the developers how they think. Of course, their angle is a little different than ours as the owner Right. Our angle is to make money, but as part of that, you can learn from that too. What are they seeing in the current markets? What are they seeing what you know, the current ability of capital? Where are they seeing trends going? Is it better to lease at this point, to build up this point and and the gamut in between? So really seeing how they think and how they work through that has really been. That was one really interesting conversation.
Speaker 1:Has there been any within that conversation, bob? Was there anything that was kind of an aha for you, or perhaps something that you didn't anticipate uncovering but you did? Relative to the developer angle?
Speaker 2:I don't know if there's any aha moments other than, uh, a snapshot in time, uh, where they were in 2025 and where that, where they're thinking is uh, as far as uh, whether the owners should be thinking about, you know, at this point, selling some of their properties and leasing them back. They're're you know where they are as far as really thinking through the whole gamut of lease, blend, buy and that whole thing. So they went through all the scenarios of that in my four-year role at Acres.
Speaker 1:Interesting angle. So is it a one-year term for you and we can move on from him in a sec, but are you president for a year?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, the current president, jeff kent uh, one of the founders has been president for the past five years, but now, as we are developed to do bylaws I talk about, we're putting in time moments. There will be a one-year president-elect, followed by a year president, a year out as the the immediate past president. So my term will be one year. So Jeff will be our FDR. You know of what person has more tenure than some of the presidents that will come after yes, yes, the FDR.
Speaker 1:I just got back from Gettysburg over the weekend. Not that FDR ever went to Gettysburg, but when you said FDR, I thought of Eisenhower. Eisenhower had a place on Gettysburg, so I love that analogy. I always like the history stuff throwing it in there, as I know you do so, bob. Just one more thing on AMP and maybe extending out. You know the challenges that face us in health care today. I mean, mean we talk about them all the time. How is amp helping to address some of those? In fact, are you guys going to do a lot of advocacy, are you gonna like and again, you're really early and you're building the foundation but how are you guys planning on addressing some of these challenges that exist?
Speaker 2:Well, again, amfp is a chapter-based structure, so this structure has really proven to be highly effective and a sustainable model, with each of these chapters creating local hubs of engagement. So, as part of that, we're focusing on education, network opportunities, like I spoke about, and to the SLAP local chapter events, but we're also promoting national conferences. For example, amfp is a partner with industry events like the Healthcare Design Conference and Expo. So we'll continue to promote the. I want to get away from just to promote the. I want to get away from just the end users, but just the whole gamut, the spectrum of people that are part of the Bolt department.
Speaker 1:Hmm, Interesting approach. Interesting approach. And how do people find out more about AMP Website to go to or?
Speaker 2:Yeah, amfporg, and as you go there you can go to a section called chapters and there you'll see under the chapters, the local chapters, the different educational summits and events that are going on. Each of those symposiums really target different things. Each of those symposiums really target different things. Like there might be an education session that focuses on strategic and capital planning panels and how different people look at that. Another panel might be, or symposium might focus the day or half a day on staffing shortages, challenges, recruitment training panels, which I know is near and dear to your heartbeat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for example, in North Texas several months ago they brought in Quinn Studer and he does a lot on employee engagement, so we had a full-day session with him. So you know a little bit different angle than talking to health care facility managers. Certainly we do focus on some of the facilities, things that are near and dear to all of us who run the hospitals, like we've had panels on sustainability and all that, and we have sessions, like I talked earlier, on navigating economic uncertainty and health care industry challenges and how you can take that back and make it part of your discussion on being more organization.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think from a content perspective, bob, you really do. I mean, like education programs, you need the technical piece, but you really have to augment it with the soft skill stuff that you were just talking about, because it's half the job these days.
Speaker 2:Right, I mean, you need the technical, but if you can't do that soft stuff, you're not going to be successful well, and and there are organizations like ashley and others we and we do have, um, you know, really good programs related to that, so don't necessarily need to compete with them, but really fill in some of the gaps that we're missing there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I agree.
Speaker 2:I think so because we've those by the way, pete Faustin has a good chapter, so look him up. I will Please attend. Tell him I sound to it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, I will, I will, I look forward to that. So that's a critical though. So you guys are locally based as opposed to nationally based.
Speaker 2:That's the model that we believe has grown the success that AMFB has had to date.
Speaker 1:All right, so let's transition for a second. You have a day job right at Children's Dallas and you've got some challenges there too. You've got a what A new $5 billion pediatric center you're building. Can you talk to us a little bit, bob size scope, can you talk about that project?
Speaker 2:Yeah, this project is actually a joint venture between Chobrit Health and UT Southwestern, which is a state academic medical center here in Dallas. So the relationship between UT Southwestern and Children's Health goes back to the 1960s when Children's Health was granted blame by the state of Texas to serve as the pediatric facility for UT Southwestern. So it's their doctors who are providing the are providing clinical care in Chilbert South. Okay, so, as they decided to several years ago, look at how we can really become stronger, become one of the leading pediatric healthcare providers of the country, pediatric health care providers of the country. So they created a joint pediatric enterprise between Children's Health and UT Southwestern and as part of that we made this agreement to have a joint venture on this new hospital which will replace our current Children's Medical Center Dallas. So a little bit of the size of it it's approximately 4.9 million square feet. Our current campus today is about 1.9 million square feet. Anybody who works in hospitals or go to hospital know that. Courtney's always me shoot. We're going to grow our parking spaces by 50% and go for 4,000 over 6,000 parking spots will be three patient towers initially. Two of them will be 12 story patient towers. The third will be an 8 story patient tower that can grow to 12 stories as a weeds continue to grow, and then there is space adjacent to that tower, port tower, shit, that or one that or botch that you can see it, so you can do that. But when we open this one it'll open like the 552 beds. We currently have 400 beds, but we also will have in this new facility 24 observation beds, which we currently do not have at Dallas. So, as you know, for observation it's children who come in. They don't quite meet the criteria to be admitted but we don't want to send them home or waiting for tests. So now they either take up spots in that ED or up in one of our med surge beds. So this unit will uh really help, uh create additional capacity and and really have a program to to do true observation on those on a in a unit that's set up rep and it is a level one trauma center. Uh, currently and will remain and we'll we'll have 90 ED bays when we're done. So where we call it, the nomenclature for this campus is the new pediatric campus. So not really a big marketing campaign on naming it, but we developed a new pediatric campus on naming it, but without the new pediatric campus.
Speaker 2:Again we have two, two owners who developed a joint venture to manage us as well through a, a bible, and c3, a joint venture, a non-profit, of pediatric management services, ophms. We also have two large international design firms involve HKS, which is based out of Dallas, but Perkins Boyle has partnered with them. Perkins Boyle Healthcare is out of Dallas, their main healthcare hub. So you've got two large firms that come to get leads in design. And then for the construction management we have two firms that have formed a true joint venture a new company, mccarthy, which is a large national, probably the largest national CM for health care work in the country, and then Bond Construction, which is one of the largest CMs in Texas for health care. So they formed a joint venture called McCarthy Bond Partnership or MVP. They formed a joint venture called McCarthy Bond Partnership or MVP. So our design teams, you know, with HKS and Purpose and Will they like to refer to themselves as the dream team, and McCarthy and Bond, you know, refer to themselves as MVP and I told both of them I'll use that designation at the end of the project. It's just our tactic. They're starting to get my humor down their feet.
Speaker 2:So, as you can imagine now think about that. You have two owners. Yeah, one, a state institution, an academic medical center that has its own culture and own processes and own state regulation, and a nonprofit Children's Hospital coming together to collaborate on this. You've had two architectural firms and I'm sure you're aware architectural firms all have their own culture and way of doing things. You have two construction managers, so if the project wasn't complex enough, you had that complexity as well. So a lot of work that's been going on behind the scenes in addition to managing the project. But how do we merge as teams and teams amongst the three entities but also a project? So a lot of good work is on the Vintner, so, as you can imagine.
Speaker 2:So let's talk about PHNS for a minute. It was a new entity for them, but you're now responsible for serving as a developer for the design, construction and development of this campus. But as a new entity you have no policies, you have no procedures, you have no, there's no delegation of authorities, spending authorities, contract authorities so all that had to be developed and negotiated between the owners of what limits were getting. So, for example, in my day job I have 1.5 million dollars worth of authority spending. I bet I can sign for spending authority, but on a five billion dollar project, you know I was going to both ceos and saying, unless you want to sign for everything, we need to, you know, develop more delegated uh authority spending levels. So really working with both sides attorneys and coming up with plans. You know like right now I have 25 million dollars of authority just to make sure we're managing this project correctly. So a lot of work around that as well.
Speaker 2:But, again, a lot of teaming work too.
Speaker 2:When I got here, some of the design firms were spread around the city and as we were looking at coming out of SD and going into DD and doing some target value design, we had sent Brew in our facility where we're located and said need all the teams here co-located to really jointly work together?
Speaker 2:And that served to number one, cut down on the team, the time to get through the process we need to go to, but it also served to form relationships and teaming, you know. So we felt more like a project team. So a lot of behind-the-scenes work going on like that as well. So it's just really been extremely fascinating, extremely rewarding and, as you also might recognize, just going through some of the contracts when you're talking about contracts and risks for projects this large and how do we get through that? And also for the CM really breaking down these work packages, because you know some of the contractors can only bond for so much. So how to really smartly break down work packages in an area that gives opportunities for firms that may not otherwise. A lot, a lot of work going on to help managers.
Speaker 1:If you like this video, please like and subscribe to the network and, more importantly, share it with your colleagues in the healthcare industry. Together, we can solve the aging crisis that's impacting all of us. Did you do co-location at Universityc university cincinnati when you were that project as well?
Speaker 2:uh, we did not because we we intended to, but we did not, because both of it so that's, right one virtual for a lot of us. So we had to, we, we had to forget about that, bob the covid part.
Speaker 1:Um, are you continually trying to, like, break down silos? I'm always interested kind of in the, the, the interpersonal stuff, the relationship stuff, and you talked about relationships and building the relationships and there's no fast track to building a relationship. Right, co-location is a nice way to build that relationship, but are you like, how do you break down silos? How do you make sure that everybody is on the same team moving forward?
Speaker 2:uh, some of it's by design. Uh, some of it's by just continuing to build those relationships. So, for example, by design is we? We have set meetings. Uh, we have a planning committee, we have a development committee, but sometimes we need to meet beyond that. So we got together for one day I don't know if Courtney or Session he's a laborer but to really look at how we're set up and how we can improve on things.
Speaker 2:So now we have the lead from the architectural frar, the lead from the cm, myself and one of my co-workers that eat on a weekly basis, away from the day-to-day. Oh, you know what are the troubles, what are we going through? How are we managing things? To really the opportunity of the forks to align and say are we, you know, continue to move this forward? Uh, are we struggling in civil bar relationships? Or, you know, is there something we need to do to to make sure we continue to stay on track? And partner burgos.
Speaker 2:So I think, if we do what's for trying to get off site and, uh, so I think, if we do what's for trying to get off site and have the dinner with the four of us together, just to really maybe even not talk about the project, but really, just, you know, continue to build that where we should show. So we're doing things like that thing we have coming up here shortly is uh, we have finished basically design where we we finished design development. Now, 2025, they're going to be doing cd packages and, uh, that will go throughout 2025. But we're transitioning the planning team that will set up to even design transition. Some of those swaps off to teen, but we're going to activate a transition, transition and activation committee.
Speaker 2:So as part of that, we'll have some people from our npc project team intertwined and that's a combination of ut cell question shoulders intertwined with the children's Medical Center Dallas, who will be operating a new hospital to start developing all the new clinical workloads, operational workloads, all that work that needs to be done to get ready to open this. So that's a whole new set of TIPA, like what we're doing as we integrate some of their TIPA project to the whole food network as well. So it's a never-ending process. Even if you know, we took an equivalent employee engagement survey at one snapshot time, that doesn't mean six months later, it's totally opposite. So it's something we've just got to continually work on and continue to keep our ear to the ground and make sure we're moving in the right direction so you're starting that transition to operations pretty early in the the project yeah, it's a, it's a again.
Speaker 2:Uh, going to be a whole new campus building, a new tower within an existing palace, so a lot of work needs to to be done or coming. You know from the whole procurement that the owner needs to do with the medical department and ff and e ig assisting, but also you know the whole getting the teeth together. And how are your workflows different given this? You know, because this building is going to be a different footprint, a different everything that they need to work through, and then you will eventually get into the staff training and all that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's fascinating. And so, Bob, you said CDs. Now Are you doing any enabling work and what's the completion date for this?
Speaker 2:The enabling work was done earlier. The land we are on, as land we are on, is owned by U2 Southwestern and this hospital threw a crowd. But he was building on that land and so a lot of the enabling work was doing demolition of the buildings that were on that site. So we broke ground in October of 24. A lot of site work. It's almost 34 acres that this had belonged, but as part of it, for patient parking, there'll be four stories underground parking. That goes with it. So a lot of dirt being rolled, and so we're continuing to do earthwork for drill up piers. Uh, we have two cranes, uh, pop, a third will be going up this weekend for an eventual nine cranes. We're doing some utility relocation at this time.
Speaker 2:But we have had a rainy season in dallas, uh, to date, and I was concerned that we might have some slippage. You know the business it's a lot of dirt work, four iron sim trucks a day going in and out. So when we have a heavy rain you think even the next day it'd be too muddy to work. But I think I don't know this for a fact, but I think I have 400 trucks in and out of there, kind of compacted to brown. So, uh, you know it's not really that bad after a rain. It could be the iron. That's a continuing work is them.
Speaker 1:Is the new site? Pardon, I'm sorry, is the new site adjacent to your existing?
Speaker 2:no, the. The new site is approximately a mile away from our current one, but it is adjacent, across Harry Hines Boulevard, which is a major boulevard in Dallas, across the street from the current UT Southwestern's Clements University Hospital. So there will actually be a sky bridge that crosses Harry Hines Boulevard and connect those two. Process, uh, airy hines boulevard and connect those two. And the benefit of that is when you, you know we, our children's health, will not and does not will not have labor and delivery. So, as you have either that have a baby that needs to get to our Q right away, you know you currently now have to put them in an amplex transporter to our campus, our existing campus, but this would be one where you know it's an internal walkway to get over to the hospital. Interesting, Interesting.
Speaker 1:How are you funding the project Bob, $5 billion.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the most significant investment, clearly by Children's Health, bend, ut, southwestern. So it's going to be jointly funded, number one but using a mix of operating income. It will be liquidity reserves, debt issuance and donations, and that's really key for both our institutions, you know, couldn't do this without community support. Both our institutions, you know, couldn't do this without community support. A beautiful thing about North Texas is people were extremely incredibly generous and to Nate, this project has received over three eight-figure donations in addition to several other significant donations, so I mean that's $100 billion, eight figures. So it's certainly grown that the community is invested in this new possible as well, and you know we as a project team look forward to working with the community members to make this project a reality.
Speaker 1:Now, I don't mean this in like a bad way, but in so far like $5 billion. Eight, what did you say for like five billion dollars. Eight, would you say eight?
Speaker 2:donate eight um donations or or gifts over, you know, 100 million. It does it ever become like, I'm sorry. Three, three gifts over 100 million.
Speaker 1:Three years, three, three gifts. Is it ever like monopoly money sometimes? I mean, I know you're accountable for it, so it can't be. But that's just such a vast figure, it's incomprehensible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think our leadership at boards were very smart with a purpose project in that they did realize the time crane and the rest. So as part of that they did put contingency that allows us to. You know, as we're now talking about tariffs and talking about potential risks of supply chain issues and stuff, we're really being cognizant of making sure that this early in the project we are wisely, even though people might say, well, there's $5 billion, we're wisely making sure we're using any contingency wisely. And really part of it is putting together ad alternate lists. You know, as we get through the buyout from the CN side at the end of this year, early next year, I've been determining are there, you know, pad alternates we want to consider at that time or not all? So, while it seems like it's monopoly money, you still have a lot of risk and then you really have to be careful manage it exactly not on different than a $50 million partner.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you have all of these different constituencies who are involved in this project. When you get to and I don't know that you're calling it value engineering, perhaps there's another term but how are you? What is that process like when it comes to VE, or making those tough critical decisions for what is in, what is out, especially given the conversation we just have relative to spending money wisely, but nevertheless you're still trying to satisfy diverse groups of folks. What's that process been like? Going to be like?
Speaker 2:yeah, it was a uh, we call it target value design. Okay, so we follow target value design process and as part of that, like I spoke earlier, where we co-located these different teams into the same areas, that are really working together, instead of, you know, on the MEP systems, engineers, design and throwing the rubber bands to the you know, any design assist, of really getting together and working through these things. But then the approval process through the entity PHMS that I spoke about, the Pediatric Health Management Services, a joint venture between UT Southwestern and Children's Health. We have a couple committee structures set up in there. We have a planning committee. That planning committee meets weekly and in essence it's a larger group, but we have two individuals from UT Southwestern and two of us from Children's Health that are responsible for leading that committee. So as part of that committee, they're delegated to make decisions and we do within that, those the ability to do so, because on a big project like this, not everything can go to the executive level or you're just you know, time will show you so we we'd make decisions, a lot of decisions that this planning committee.
Speaker 2:There are some that needs to go above that level and there's a formal development committee and that needs to go above that level. And there's a formal development committee that's going to establish. That development committee under phms has five voting members from the ut southwestern, five voting members from children's health, me being one of those, and they have the authority to make uh decisions on their own and there are some that then raise to the level where both executives, senior executives, are present ceo they're president of ut southwestern, you know want to be involved in and and have input and decision making on, you know, the what can kill the building and ain't everything else, and that's an executive from we. That levels up to that level. So we have those three committee uh structures set up. A lot of the stuff would try to keep right. The planning committee there are things I need to develop committee and alter. A reverse or exec was all we had to make final approvals interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you don't want those decision-making processes to slow you down from the big picture.
Speaker 2:No, and that's one of the things we continue to monitor and track as part of our KPIs, for example I talked about. We didn't have policies and procedures set up so we started tracking what's our time to turn around payouts what's our time to turn around? You turn around pay ops what's our time to turn around? So we continue to want to get this into a shorter, tight frame as we can and part of it. We think that there's an extra layer of approvals or there's extra steps that we need to try to eliminate that they don't break value.
Speaker 2:At ERL we've been successful in advocating and changing some of those because dallas it's part of the dallas forward metroplex, I should say was tremendously growing and the competition for uh contractors is fierce. So you know you have a new convention center being built, have uh dallas artwork, airford as expanding. You have a lot of data centers showing up. Well, so this project here. So if we can't pay these contractors on time on the app on a because for our processes on the project was large, the risk is we'll start work whopping because they got plenty of other uh to work.
Speaker 1:Do you have within, like you talked about, the payout? Do you have targeted days with which to turn around decisions? I know you said you're tracking how long it takes, but do you also have metrics to get decisions by or to turn things around by?
Speaker 2:For payouts. We're looking at turning those around in 15 days. We're getting about to that. We do have the construction auditor that we hire that's going through the scourge first before we do our renew. So it does take a little bit of time, but we are continuing to push those down.
Speaker 1:You know that data center thing is interesting. I was talking to an engineer last week. I hadn't thought about this before. With manufacturing coming back to the us potentially, and with the need for these big data centers, that's going to be another and we don't want people to leave. But he but he called me and he was what do you think about data centers? It's interesting. That's just another competitor, right for the talent that we're all trying to get, and that's a potentially significant competitor well, especially for electrical electricians.
Speaker 1:They're paying top dollar and, and you know, these electricians find that attractive yeah, and a lot of times they're a little bit more well-heeled than your typical healthcare organization. The data centers two more more quick questions, bob, before we go, and I thank you for your time. What do you like about these big projects? You have great experience with them. What is it about big projects that draws you?
Speaker 2:It's really the challenge of setting up organizations for the next 50 years and as part of that, you really have to challenge yourself of. You know we're opening this hospital. The construction will be done in 2030. We'll open it up in 2034, you know, after we do all the owner's work and training and everything they need to build it. But we're building it now. We're designing it now for a hospital that's been open in six years. So you know how do you incorporate innovative features into something that'll be sustainable for, you know, the next 30 years.
Speaker 2:So a couple of cool things we're doing here that you know I can do on a big project, but I may not necessarily have at an in your regular routine. Uh, projects that hospitals have is number one. Our CEOs both challenged us to, or the team to have LEED Gold for the entire campus. So I've been. I'm familiar with LEED Gold for an outpatient clinic or a cancer center, maybe a hospital tower, but for a whole campus has its challenges. So to really go to that and make sure you're tracking where the LEED points are and give yourself some bucket room, but at the end of the day, to be a children's hospital that has the entire campus as lead bull is really, you know, a commendable effort. I believe, uh, we're doing stuff uh like, for example, we're gonna have a likely grid, um, with this, uh, hospital that'll be able to power, uh, the entire facility beyond what emergency generators do?
Speaker 2:You talked a little bit earlier about IoT, ai and digital twins. We're really from a fallback to the facilities. A part of it, uh, why I like this stuff is we're really starting to get creative on what are some things we can do related to those various things. Now, there are hospitals now that are using iot and ai for, like, predictive maintenance, asset management. We'll certainly do that energy optimization, indoor air quality, but really setting up even beyond that.
Speaker 2:So, if you have digital twins that go with that, you can have the entire campus virtually enabled, that you can test maintenance scenarios or construction scenarios and really reduce risks to patients. We're thinking of using it. Can we use it for spatialization of patient flow? So, if you have real-time occupancy sensors and patient tracking systems, can you generate data that ai can analyze to optimize room assignment, server wait times and patient throughput, you know. So those types of things, uh, we're thinking about smart parking systems can. Can you use IoT sensors and AI to guide patients and staff to available parking spaces through an app. So it's those various types of things that a general project like a new tower won't necessarily get you involved in, but you can really put some thought into how to be creative and innovative on these new large projects.
Speaker 1:So I think that's what draws me did you ever think in your career, when you were starting, could you have envisioned talking about these types of cool issues? You know these types of issues in the career that you started at and now, where we are in 2025, just listening to you talk about it's kind of wow, it's a whole new horizon?
Speaker 2:no, it is, and really our profession is very fastly that's a word evolving out. You know it's no longer the traditional maintenance leader role, you know it's really we're becoming strategic partners within, you know, integral to the whole operation efficiency, cost management of your organization, patient safety. So I think you know some of the things that I'm thinking about that I would suggest that if there's listeners out there who want to move up to a VP role, that you really need to think about trends that are happening and where our profession is going, if you will. So certainly the technology integration. We talked about adapting smart building technologies.
Speaker 2:Financial pressures that health care organizations are having margins are going to remain tight and this puts us as healthcare facility professional positional, doing more with less. So how do you do creative problem solving? How do you get those strategic vendor partnerships? How do you demonstrate roi on every investment we're having out there and we talked earlier about workhorse challenges we're going to have a significant talent gap as experienced leaders retire. So there's an urgent need for succession planning and attracting young professionals to this field. So that's another one that educational partnerships and we believe, people like AMFP can really help become crucial for workforce development.
Speaker 2:And then there's the stuff that'll never go away, you know, country control, expertise, regulatory compliance. Uh, you still need to be to be good at that. But I think our profession is really at a reflection point and it's challenging, more challenging at zyrogram, but it's also more impactful than ever. So I think think leaders, you know, blending their technical expertise or strategical thinking is going to be more important than ever. So the only way I know how to do that is to be a continuous leader, be able to adapt. To me, those are two non-negotiables.
Speaker 1:So yes, I would you do it. Well, you kind of I think you took the thunder away from my last question because it was kind of ask you, as I asked you three years ago. You know what's your outlook for the profession and I think you touched a little bit on it. But any other final thoughts relative to what you see, you gave a good roadmap.
Speaker 2:Well, I remember a couple of years ago you and I differ a little bit. I don't still believe that my position still holds. We had a conversation on two facility leaders need to have degrees. My position was you have to be a continuous leader. That's one way of getting the experience, if you will, to be able to record out to a senior executive team or report out to your board. It just shows you obtain some level of achievement that theoretically at least on paper you have the ability to do that. So I continue to believe that for healthcare facility leaders, as you want to grow and continue to hold up the chain in your organization, healthcare organizations in general are very academic. A lot of their leaders have the academic side of it. As a profession, I still tend to believe that we should as well to be able to set the table roll.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it's funny you bring that up. I'm still where I was a couple of years ago, too relative to take about a case-by-case basis. I think, with the shortages we're facing, just to eliminate folks because they don't have the degree, I still think it's short-sighted. But you know, as I was listening to you talk and probably I know we've got to go on this one, but it's almost leading, do you think in some ways to an evolution of a new role, kind of a new definition of facilities management?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, 100%. You know, it's not going to be long where your frontline maintenance staff is not going to be walking around with a car, with an iPad and that's their first line of diagnosis, I think and it's going to continue to be more technologically advanced and we need to continue to adapt.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, great conversation, bob. Anything, I didn't touch on anything we didn't touch on. We covered a lot of ground.
Speaker 2:Well, I really appreciate your ton of beat, my pleasure. Thank you for allowing me to talk about the Association of Medical Facility Professionals. I'm really excited about that organization and it's had tremendous success. My goal is to help ensure that success continues and put them on a path for a really great organization that was going to be very meaningful to the industry. So thanks for allowing me to talk about that.
Speaker 1:Oh no, my pleasure. I think it's important and you kind of hit on it relative to we need to publicize the opportunity and the more organizations that are out there doing that and promoting and educating it just helps us long term. And I will check out the Boston chapter. We have a Dallas office. Our Dallas folks will check out the Dallas. I appreciate it. So this is Peter Martin. I thank Dr Robert Fellbauer, chief Facilities Officer and Real Estate Development Officer for Children's Dallas. I had to look, bob. Sorry about that. Dallas, texas, bob. Thank you for your time today.
Speaker 2:Thank you, and if you get down to the Dallas office, we'll do as always.
Speaker 1:Thank you for watching, bob. Thanks a lot. Have a great day everybody. We will be back with another episode. If you want to be a guest on a future episode of the Healthcare Facilities Network, go to healthcarefacilitiesnetworkcom and let us know who you are and what you want to talk about, because together we can solve this critical aging issue.