By Alan Fleck | DFW Newsflash | May 2018
Hospital Week and Nurse’s Week at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center (BSWMC) in Irving this year was celebrated a little differently. For the first time ever, various teams of BSWMC staff have designed and built construction cone monsters, using cones provided by Turner Construction.
Irving BSWMC is undergoing a $120 million dollar renovation that will be completed in 2019.
“Construction is messy and confusing,” Susan Hall, media manager for BSWH Corporate Marketing, said. “The cone monsters will serve as sentries to help patients navigate within and around the hospital.”
While it may seem the hospital has been under construction forever, this is the first time the BSWMC staff has interfaced with the construction companies on site to get across specific messages, such as safety is important and can be fun.
The seven Cone Monsters voted on by the employees included:
1 – Vadar Rehab Cone Trooper by the Rehab Team. Constructed with a definite Star Wars movie influence.
2 – Geraud the Giraffe by the Lab Team
3 – Bender the Traffic Violation Defender by the Pharmacy Team
4 – Doc Oct (Doctor Octopus) by the Misfit Team. Constructed with a definite Spiderman movie enemy influence.
5 – Mobilizer Minion by the Acute Physical Medical Team.
6 – Spider ConRad the Construction Inspector by the Radiology Team.
7 – Gracie Lou Freebush by Miss BSWH Irving.
Built by various teams of hospital staff, the cone monsters could not be taller than ten feet, and had to be as weather-proof as possible. Teams had several weeks to design and build their cone monsters.
“This is a fun way to get the team involved and have a little fun, because [the construction] is a little stressful,” Stacy Albert, manager of service, said. “The staff will vote on their favorite cone monster. We will select the top three, and then we will position them at important construction areas as awareness for our staff. We borrowed the idea from the Interstate 35 construction monsters [made from barrels] we have seen on the highway.”
“This is a really fun way to celebrate the expansion of the hospital, but it is also a great way to remember we want people to be safe while at the hospital,” Susan Hall said.
“Hospital Week and Nurses Week are really our time to thank our staff for the work they do every day tirelessly on different shifts,” Cindy Schamp, nine-year president of Baylor Scott and White, said. “We were in last night with food trucks for the night shift. We had a cookie-making contest earlier this week and cookie taste-testing. We do a burrito breakfast.”
Schamp mentioned the construction cone monsters are also for delivery drivers and people attempting to take short-cuts through the neighborhood, not realizing that all the construction is underway.
“This has surpassed my expectations,” Nikona Wolf, director of administration, said. “I wasn’t quite sure if the staff was going to be excited about this and be willing to put the time and effort in. I think they literally enjoyed this project more than some of our other projects, because it let them work together as a team and have some fun with all this construction that has been going on around here.”
“Hospital week is a big deal,” Chris Castro, manager supply chain, said. “Baylor does a lot for the employees. It’s nice how they do this thing. Maybe budgets are tight, but it’s nice how the staff can get together to do things like this. I appreciate it a lot.”
Results of the employee voting were:
#1 – Vadar Rehab Cone Trooper
#2 – Spider – ConRad Construction Inspector
#3 – TIE – Gracie Lou Freebush and Doc Oct
Next year the hospital will still be under construction, so new construction cone monsters may be needed.
