Insights
Sep 9, 2024 _ insights
Standardized Designs for Ambulatory Care
I was recently invited to contribute an article to Health Facilities Management magazine about the process we used to help Bon Secours Mercy Health establish a more standardized and scalable design toolkit for their new facilities.
In 2018, the Mercy Health and Bon Secours health systems merged to form Bon Secours Mercy Health (BSMH), and at the time were operating a combined 48 hospitals across seven states and in Ireland. Shortly after the merger, the combined system’s new design and construction leadership team started an initiative to address the unique challenge of promoting clinical, operational, and brand consistency in new facility construction projects throughout the system’s expanded geographical footprint.
We were engaged as the planning and design consultant and given the initial task of defining and implementing a standardized, scalable ambulatory care project template. Key steps on this journey included:
- Establishing common language and appropriate precedents
- Identifying three primary components (selected clinical departments, material palettes, and managed stakeholder input process)
- Identifying three different scales (neighborhood, community, regional)
The first phase of the standardized ambulatory design initiative spanned the global pandemic and subsequent supply chain and cost escalation challenges in ways that stretched the initial project goals. By overcoming those challenges, the successful completion of the template design guidelines and three built projects tell a compelling story about this unique approach to healthcare design and construction standardization.
To read more about these built projects, and additional insights from our collaboration with Bon Secours Mercy Health read the full article in Health Facilities Management.
Read more about our work with Bon Secours Mercy Health here, here, and here. Read more about our healthcare work here.
Mickey LeRoy, AIA, ACHA, LEED AP is a principal at GBBN. He leads teams in all phases of planning, design, and delivery of multi-faceted healthcare projects. He works closely with leading healthcare systems, like Bon Secours Mercy Health, to develop efficient clinical prototypes that can work with different building scales. With previous experience in public relations and marketing, Mickey’s communication skills complement his abilities in design and project management. His recent work includes Mercy Health’s Kings Mills Hospital, Mercy Health Deerfield Medical Center, and TriHealth’s Harold M. and Eugenia S. Thomas Comprehensive Care Center.
