Customized Modular Electrophysiology (EP) Lab – Craning and Installation on 5th Story Courtyard at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center

At Modular Devices, we take great pride in our ability to deliver innovative and customized solutions to healthcare facilities. For over 35 years we’ve been providing Mobile Medical Imaging Labs to hospitals and healthcare facilities throughout the US. This blog post highlights our largest most customized Modular EP Lab project in Modular Devices history, and how it was delivered and craned up and into a 5th-floor open courtyard at the Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington, MA.

Modular Devices met with leadership at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in the summer of 2021 to discuss their growing EP program and how we could help expand and add an additional EP Lab.  The conversation started around a Mobile EP Lab (Trailer on wheels) but a standard trailer wasn’t large enough.  We then offered a larger Modular Cath Lab out of our fleet, but even our standard 14’ wide by 48’ long Modular EP Lab wasn’t large enough for the volume of EP procedures at Lahey.  Ultimately it was decided that a customized “double-wide” Modular EP Lab measuring 28’ wide by 48’ in length would be the best solution, as it would be larger in size than either of their (2) in-house EP Labs.  But there is more – Lahey’s EP Labs are located on the 5^th floor of the hospital and they needed the customized Modular EP Lab placed in an open courtyard on the 5^th floor, adjacent to their current EP Labs.

Fast forward to May 2023 – after months of design development meetings, engineering, and building construction the Modular EP Lab is out of production and ready for delivery.  More to come on the overall project in future posts but this highlights what goes into the logistics and coordination of delivery, craning, and installation of a large customized Modular EP Lab.

Modular Devices has designed and engineered larger modular cath and EP labs in the past and they have typically been true “double-wide” units in that they are (2) of our standard 14’x48’ buildings, assembled on-site and engineered to be one large building complex.  As the design progressed with Lahey there were concerns with the weight of (2) buildings and craning/lifting them up and over 7 stories to be placed on the 5th-floor courtyard.  The weight of two buildings was going to be too heavy, so we engineered a more customized solution comprised of (4) smaller units each weighing approximately 25,000 pounds.  Once assembled on-site these 4 units create the same 28’x48’ building size as originally planned.

Collaboration with Bay Crane:

In mid-May 2023, our logistics team coordinated a plan with Lahey leadership on the delivery, craning, and installation of the Modular EP Lab.   We transported each of the (4) separate 25,000-pound modules on separate trailers and had them delivered to the hospital site.    Bay Crane, a reliable partner, played a crucial role here. They used their 770-ton capacity Liebherr LTM1650-8.1 mobile hydraulic crane, equipped with a 111-foot boom and 218-foot luffing jib, to carefully and safely lift each the units over the hospital’s 7th story and place each in the proper position and orientation in the 5^thstory courtyard.  It was a coordinated effort with a lot of teamwork as the craning operator couldn’t see into the elevated courtyard and the team in the courtyard used radios to communicate with the operator to place each unit properly in the courtyard.  

The success of this unique project wouldn’t have been possible without the exceptional collaboration with Bay Crane.

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Anticipated Opening:

We are excited to announce that the new Modular EP lab at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center is in the final stages of completion and is on-track to open in September 2023.