Data-Driven Facility Master Plan Helps Safety Net Hospital Modernize Care

Challenge

Like many community hospitals nationwide, a large state safety net hospital recognized the need to modernize outdated facilities to optimize care for the communities it serves. Making the state a healthier place to live for all residents and recommitting to equitable healthcare in the upcoming decades was becoming more difficult in overcrowded and suboptimal conditions.

The hospital, which serves as the principal teaching hospital for a medical and dental school, has an aged layout with multiple care areas misaligned to current demand and care delivery expectations. This includes the main hospital building (500+ beds), which is more than 40 years old with many original engineering systems.

Solution

Guidehouse was engaged by global architecture, design, and planning firm Gensler to help create a facility master plan for the hospital.¹

To support planning for the modern, transformative investment into the health of state residents, Guidehouse provided a rigorous analysis of the market and demand projections for the hospital. The plan focused on preserving, readapting, refurbishing, and the potential redevelopment of all current facilities on the hospital campus. It also aimed to identify new facilities to collectively enhance and optimize space utilization to meet community, health system, and facility needs in decades to come.

Guidehouse provided three key areas of analysis:

An examination of the hospital’s existing operations, including:

• An inventory of beds by department or service, operating rooms and procedure space, imaging modalities, and exam rooms
• A study of historic patient volumes and utilization by service, including pre-pandemic, pandemic, and post-pandemic periods
• A review of patient throughput in all care areas within the main hospital, the ambulatory care center on campus, and the nearby cancer center

The development of the hospital’s existing strategic positioning in the market, including services unique and vital to its public health mission, current market share, and strategic partnerships.

• This was accomplished by meeting with executive and service line leadership to fully understand market dynamics, patient population served, and operational and facility challenges, as well as strategic initiatives that would change service volumes in the future

The development of future workload projections, considering historic patient volumes and current strategic initiatives.

• This was translated into future facility needs, including future state bed, operating room, emergency department, and exam room needs. These requirements were refined with executive and service line leadership to reflect the most likely future scenarios

Impact

Guidehouse provided foundational planning data for the principal architects at Gensler – the basis for state-of-the-art, fiscally responsible solutions for the future. The next generation master plan will serve as a guide to help the hospital continue to offer equity in healthcare, retain its place as an anchor institution in the community, and become one of the country’s best biomedical campuses.

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¹“Gensler.” 2019. Gensler. 2019. https://www.gensler.com/.