Vassar Brothers Medical Center

With a focus on creating a patient-centered, healing environment, CallisonRTKL’s design of the new, eight-level inpatient pavilion at Vassar Brothers Medical Center (VBMC) is centered on bringing clarity, flexibility and longevity to the campus, while empowering a new level of energy to the community. Similar to impacts of the mid-Hudson Bridge and Walkway over the Hudson River, the new pavilion provides for a revitalized and sustainable medical center that will become a destination of world-class care, the flagship for Nuvance and a landmark for the Hudson Valley. The new pavilion addition houses 290 private patient rooms, a new emergency department, loading dock, central plant expansion, interventional suite, conference center, cafe, helipad and new inpatient lobby. The campus is comprised of four distinct and separate zones - inpatient, outpatient, service, and emergency. The creation of these zones reflects the team’s commitment to operational efficiency, user experience, evidence-based design and sustainability. OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY The pavilion consists of three major clinical components – beds, emergency department, and an interventional platform. To tackle understanding the current state, our team held user group meetings to learn VBMC’s culture, workflow and processes and took gemba walks to develop spaghetti diagrams and process flow charts. These exercises uncover inefficiencies in the current environment and inform possible improvements for the future state. During the planning process, we examined the eight health care flows as a checklist to ensure an efficient, human-centered experience for all users. To establish our ideal future state, we utilized benchmarks, streamlined workflows, and removed inefficient processes to create a more effective patient care environment. The resulting spaces are flexible and adaptive providing an opportunity for transformational change. USER-EXPERIENCE CallisonRTKL infused hospitality into the overall design to improve user experience, satisfaction scores and loyalty. A guiding principle was “the quality of the space matched the quality of care”. The design team understood the pavilion could not just mimic the interior aesthetic of a five-star hotel; it required full understanding of patient process and flow, caregiver patterns and leveraging technology in care delivery. Full scale mock-ups were constructed for critical care and medical surgical patient rooms and nurse stations, which allowed VBMC to assess design decisions and adapt adjustments for measurable outcomes, prioritizing end users’ needs. EVIDENCE-BASED DESIGN After equipping ourselves with research, planning strategies were deployed to create a functional and efficient, patient-centered, healing environment with sustainable and enhanced amenities. The final design embraces sweeping elements that work in concert using color, light and shape to define an uplifting and healing environment. SUSTAINABILITY CallisonRTKL incorporated Performance-Driven Design (PDD) into our design process. PDD, our internal process, utilizes data analysis to create a space with measurable impact, specifically sustainability. To achieve our environmental goals, the team placed a high intensity on aggressive energy and water efficiency prerequisites. The new inpatient pavilion incorporates the following: 20% water use reduction target, solar shading on west facing facade, storm water management, reduction in surface parking, vegetated roofs, accessible outdoor space, and overall energy savings with a reduction in building usage.