Project Description
The new outpatient hospital center in metropolitan Detroit is the part of a larger regional strategy for the Detroit Medical Center and Children’s Hospital of Michigan. The strategy is to create a hospital without beds initially and then add acute care in a second phase. The first phase is a large, 3-story center that contains, emergency, surgery, diagnostics, clinics, and specialty services. From the exterior design through interior planning and design, the point is to make this very prominent center welcoming to both parents and children. The broad spectrum of outpatient services fit within a site and facility that has been developed to be experienced in smaller experiences, rather than long or big expanses of space. Color, lighting, and all design elements all fit to the concept of breaking experiences down into smaller pieces.
Perhaps most interesting about the process to get to a completed design was in the use of Lean Design principals through Virginia Mason Production System and full scale mock-ups of all floors. The development of the design through Lean principals resulted in a decrease of overall area of the building by 15%. The quantity and design of spaces was developed and refined through mock-ups rather than traditional drawings and sketches. The engagement of staff/physicians in the process of physically building the space through mock-ups demonstrated the benefit through idea generation and consensus around operational improvement not normally possible through traditional methods.