Mountain Lakes Medical Center

Mountain Lakes Medical Center is a new 67,000 square foot, 25 bed critical access replacement hospital in Clayton, Georgia. Located atop a mountain, the facility offers patients quality healthcare in a spectacular setting.

Mountain Lakes Medical Center includes 25 inpatient beds as well as outpatient and emergency services. The hospital has operating rooms, a pharmacy, lab, dietary, and radiology departments. It serves the Rabun County community and communities throughout Northeast Georgia.

The facility sits on top of the mountain and is designed to take advantage of the surrounding landscape. The exterior of the patient floor has 10-foot glass walls to provide patients a view of the countryside. Instead of a traditional lobby, a breezeway offers patients and visitors a view of the surrounding mountains and the city of Clayton.

Once we were released for work on Mountain Lakes, we wasted no time; we installed approximately 317 tons of structural steel in eight weeks. We worked with our structural steel fabricator and our erector early in the process and developed a sequence of work during the planning phase that was successful in the field. As the material was fabricated, employees sequentially stacked it for installation (i.e. the steel on top was to be installed first). Upon delivery, we placed the beams where they were to be installed, eliminating unnecessary waiting, unnecessary movement of people, and unnecessary movement of materials – all principles of Lean construction.