Confidential Health System
2024
Envisioning the Future
of a Coastal Healthcare Campus
For a prominent hospital, renowned for its clinical excellence, the opportunity was clear: to build upon its institute-based expertise and transform its campus into a truly unique, restorative, destination-healthcare facility. The hospital's leadership sought to replace seismically deficient and aging facilities with a new flexible chassis that not only set them up for the next wave of technical healthcare space demands but also optimizes the campus for an institute-based model of care while capitalizing on the hospital's uniquely sweeping ocean views, establishing its destination status.
To achieve this, Hospital leadership needed a unified, forward-thinking vision. We partnered with hospital executive leadership, institute-based clinical and business leaders, and internal stakeholders to align around a single vision and translate it into a tangible master plan.
Our Approach:
Stakeholder Co-Creation Workshops
Future Technology Scenario Planning
In-depth Ethnographic Research
Strategic Vision & Alignment
Translating Vision to Master Plan Requirements
Uncovering a Shared Vision Through Co-Creation
A truly unified vision requires deep collaboration. We partnered with a multidisciplinary team of architects, engineers, and campus leaders to co-create a compelling vision for the future of the Hospital campus as an institute-based, healthcare destination. Through in-depth interviews and collaborative workshops with stakeholders ranging from the CEO to physicians and nurses, we built a rich, nuanced understanding of their daily challenges and future aspirations. This process of co-creation ensured that the final vision was not simply our recommendation, but a compelling and shared ambition embraced by all.
Charting a Course for a High-Performing Future
To prepare the campus for future decades, we evaluated technological developments and their potential effects on the physical environment. The assessment encompassed emerging trends in digital health, logistics, and patient care delivery, leading to the development of concepts such as an offsite materials management hub featuring autonomous distribution both within the hospital and between an external supply chain warehouse.
In the near term, the warehouse can function as a supply chain hub for the entire network, utilizing manual transport with smaller trucks to the campus. As technology advances, these manual processes will be replaced by autonomous transportation solutions. This strategy reduces large truck traffic on campus while optimizing valuable in-hospital space for clinical functions. By prioritizing pragmatically innovative solutions, the master plan addresses not only present requirements but also anticipates future advancements, supporting the creation of a more technologically advanced and efficient campus environment.
From Vision to Blueprint:
Our final and most critical step was translating the strategic vision into concrete requirements for the physical master plan. We worked to distill the core themes of connectivity, future-focused infrastructure, and institute-based care into actionable design principles. This process provided the architects and planners with a clear, strategic blueprint to guide the physical transformation of the campus, ensuring the final design would be a true reflection of the shared vision.
Cutting Edge Clinical Excellence
Integrate flexible spaces for clinical trials and translational research directly into the campus fabric to drive medical innovation and attract leading experts.
Organize the campus around a primary strategy of physically co-located institutes on lower campus outpatient programs.
Invest in a state-of-the-art, consolidated surgical platform, ideally on a single floor to improve efficiency and reduce challenging patient movement via elevators.
Future Ready Facilities
To free up valuable real estate on the upper campus, the plan includes exploring the development of an off-site or lower-campus logistics hub or consolidated service center.
New facility structures and footprints must be designed with the inherent flexibility to support future conversion to acuity-adjustable beds.
A Destination for the Community
The design will prioritize the creation of intentional outdoor spaces that enhance the healing environment for both patients and staff.
Create a simplified, cohesive campus by connecting the upper and lower areas via landscaped pedestrian pathways for staff and options for patients.
Provide a comprehensive suite of outpatient facilities on the lower campus to improve patient experience, foster clinical excellence and better align the campus layout with the clinical demands of patients.
Our Impact:
Empowered hospital leadership and their partners with a unified vision and a practical plan.
Delivered a clear strategic framework to guide the master planning process.
Introduced innovative concepts for facility planning that addressed future technological and clinical demands.