Envisioning a New Clinical Home for an Academic Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
CHALLENGE
A midwestern academic medical center wanted to create a freestanding orthopaedic hospital to compete with community providers that were siphoning elective market share away. To achieve success, they needed to rethink a model of care that resulted in slow OR room turns, poor utilization of clinic environments and an operational model that would separate the department into two sites of care. Patient consumers in the community were demanding accelerated access, more convenient locations and low out-of-pocket costs. At the same time, the health system desired a world-class environment capable of competing with both the local competition and internationally-recognized orthopaedic programs.
30+ stakeholder interviews
Baseline strategy validation
Operational analysis
Time-motion studies
Clinical functionality assessment
Patient consumer demographic analysis
Patient consumer experiential analysis
Provider consumer experiential analysis
Co-creation sessions to explore tomorrow’s ambulatory orthopaedic experience
Customized demand projections
Key room forecast
Space programming
Building stacking and programmatic adjacencies
Concept development
APPROACH
The project began with a deep dive into the current state of orthopaedic care at the academic medical center. Operational and experiential metrics were combined with information gathered during interviews, shadowing and direct observation as well as competitor analysis to identify areas of strength and opportunity.
Operational and experiential best practices across industries were employed during interdisciplinary co-creation sessions. Overlaid with lean thinking and updated care models, technology evolutions and deep empathy building, the team rethought every aspect of the orthopaedic patient and provider experience.
The vision for patient, visitor and provider experiences was combined with volume projections and site constraints to establish building size, stacking and optimized horizontal and vertical adjacencies.
RESULTS
A comprehensive design brief, setting transformational principles, multiple patient personas, performance goals, patient flow maps and functional narratives that were overlaid with strategic planning objectives was developed. The design brief was ratified by every member of the co-creation team including the Chairman of Orthopaedic Surgery, institute administrator, point-of-care clinicians, ancillary staff, support staff and health system administration.
The brief guided the facility’s design through a combination of programmatic vision, clearly identified and measurable success metrics, functional narratives, process and journey maps and proposed design concepts.
50%
increase in programmatic capacity
20%
fewer exam rooms via operational innovations
15 min.
targeted OR room turn times