Adrian Barrios

By Daniel Casciato

South Florida’s healthcare landscape is evolving at a rapid pace, and DPR Construction, one of the nation’s leading technical builders, is helping to shape that transformation. From the Proton Therapy Treatment Center at Baptist Health in Boca Raton to the Broward Health Coral Springs South Tower expansion, DPR is building facilities that bring advanced medical care closer to the communities that need it most.

For Adrian Barrios, DPR’s local business unit leader, the region’s healthcare boom is both personal and professional.

“I was born and raised in South Florida,” he says. “I’ve been watching the healthcare community grow around me my entire life.” With the area’s continued aging population and growing emphasis on preventative care, Barrios notes that providers are rethinking how and where care is delivered.

“We’re seeing a transformation in healthcare where our providers, administrators, doctors, and nurses are trying to get closer to our communities,” Barrios explains. “The demand is going into outpatient facilities, ambulatory care centers and free standing emergency centers that provide between 50 to 80 percent of what a hospital can accomplish.”

This shift toward smaller, community-based facilities requires contractors who can adapt quickly to each project’s unique needs. “Any one healthcare project is its own unique opportunity,” Barrios says. “If it’s never been built before, we try to work with our customers as early as possible, listen to what they need, and offer more predictable opportunities to get projects executed.”

Precision Construction in Active Healthcare Environments

Predictability, Barrios emphasizes, is central to DPR’s philosophy. As a self-performing general contractor, DPR takes on many trades in-house—drywall, concrete, waterproofing, electrical, and more—to ensure quality and schedule control.

“We believe a self-performing general contractor has an ability to be predictable in the execution of the work in the field so that we can deliver our projects on time,” he says.

That reliability is especially critical when working in and around active hospitals. Both the Proton Therapy Center and Broward Health Coral Springs projects were horizontal expansions connected directly to existing, operational facilities, a process that requires precision and constant communication.

“In these environments, you have one side that’s an active construction site and the other side that’s critical patient area,” Barrios explains. “Vibration is a huge deal. For example, if an overhead light boom moves even slightly during an operation that could potentially provide an error for the doctor.”

To prevent disruptions, DPR coordinates every activity with hospital administrators, charge nurses, and doctors.

“We scheduled any vibration-related work early in the morning, before 7:00 a.m., to avoid disrupting patient care,” Barrios recalls. “At Broward Health Coral Springs, which operates 24/7, we coordinated directly with the doctors to understand their case schedules so we could plan our work around them and minimize any potential impact.”

Noise, dust, and patient access are equally critical concerns. DPR employs vibration and noise monitoring technology and implements strict dust-control measures, such as using watering trucks and gravel bases on job sites. Signage and site logistics are carefully planned to ensure that patients and visitors can safely navigate hospital entrances during construction.

Harnessing Virtual Design for Complex Medical Projects

The complexity extends beyond patient comfort. It’s about seamlessly integrating advanced medical technology into every build. “We believe these medical technologies require a lot of upfront planning,” Barrios says.

For highly technical installations like MRIs or proton therapy systems, DPR relies on its Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) teams to create detailed, full-scale building information models.

“Our VDC team takes the design drawings and builds a virtual model, essentially creating a life-sized digital version of the facility,” Barrios explains. “Down to the three-quarter-inch conduit, we can pinpoint exactly where everything will go. We then place the medical equipment within that model to ensure all the necessary utilities—power, water, and steam—are precisely coordinated well before construction begins.”

This modeling allows DPR’s trade partners to visualize how systems fit together before construction begins, minimizing errors and ensuring that critical equipment can be installed efficiently once on site.

Bringing Care Closer to Communities

Beyond technical excellence, DPR’s work is reshaping how patients access care. “These healthcare builds impact the patient experience by being closer to where they are,” Barrios says. “You’re seeing more outpatient and ambulatory facilities right in the communities they serve—so they’re convenient and walkable.”

That accessibility, he adds, helps patients act sooner. “When patients can get care earlier, they can address whatever might be ailing them faster,” he says.

To meet this demand, DPR embraces innovation and integrated project delivery (IPD) models that unite builders, designers, and healthcare providers from the start.

“We believe predictability for our healthcare providers is paramount,” Barrios says. “When we delivered the proton therapy treatment facility for Baptist Health South Florida, we knew that if it wasn’t delivered on time, every day that machine wasn’t operating was a day someone wasn’t receiving cancer treatment.”

By engaging early—“When it’s still a napkin sketch,” as Barrios puts it—DPR helps clients stay on budget, on schedule, and ready to serve patients sooner.

Preparing for the Next Era of Healthcare Construction

Looking ahead, DPR is positioning itself for continued growth in South Florida’s healthcare sector—focusing on long-term partnerships, innovation, and strategies that anticipate the needs of tomorrow.

“We’re a global enterprise, but we’re also deeply embedded in this community,” Barrios says. “My role is to listen to our clients, understand where our trade partners and design teams are, and ensure that we’re all aligned—one team working toward a shared mission for the healthcare provider.”

For Barrios and his team, that mission extends well beyond construction; it’s about strengthening the systems and institutions that keep South Florida healthy. “One of DPR’s core values is being ever forward,” he says. “We’re always thinking about what’s next, how the industry will evolve, and we’re confident that we’re ready for it.”

For more information, visit dpr.com.