Molly Ironmonger, System director of planning and preconstruction, Bon Secours Mercy Health (Cincinnati)

An engineer by education and construction manager by trade, Molly Ironmonger has led design and construction efforts for more than five years for the Bon Secours Mercy Health ministry, which includes 34 hospitals and 6,000 sites of care.

She supported her team on a range of projects, from $100,000 to $650 million, including a tower modernization at Mercy Lourdes in Paducah, Ky., an urgent care program that added more than 20 new sites across the organization’s footprint, and a patient tower at Bon Secours Harbour View in Hampton Roads, Va.

She’s also using her skills to drive new strategies and approaches within the field that help address common challenges tied to construction labor shortages, supply chain disruption, and materials pricing escalations. For example, during the request for contractor proposals for the Mercy Health Kings Mills, a 60-bed hospital and medical office building in Mason, Ohio, Ironmonger challenged contractors to demonstrate “creative problem solving” to meet the goals to deliver the project faster, safer, and more cost effectively than the organization had done in the past.

The proposal that stood out the most—an onsite industrialized construction center to deliver prefabrication of exterior walls and mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire suppression, technology full corridor racks and mini racks—was new to healthcare construction at the time but hit on all her goals.

After working with the organization’s risk assessment, the local jurisdiction, and project team members to address safety and risk concerns, Ironmonger greenlit the ICC. The results speak for themselves, with an 81 percent improvement in labor utilization rates, a 51 percent reduction in days onsite, and five months shaved off the construction schedule.

Outside the construction site, she’s built policies and procedures within Bon Secours Mercy Health to streamline construction processes and create efficiencies, including cost management, estimating, construction management, and design management. She supports the construction accounting team and the team responsible for interior standards, furniture and art throughout the ministry.

Ironmonger’s encouragement for outside-the-box thinking is bringing new ideas to the forefront of healthcare construction projects, saving time and money and bringing facilities—and services—to communities faster. As she told Healthcare Design in an article, “If you aren’t working on conversations around how to improve and change how you’re delivering projects, you’re really missing opportunities, because how you’ve always done it is not going to be possible.”

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