Healthcare Design - May 2015 - 44

ON PAPER , BOSTON City Hospital and Boston University
Medical Center Hospital came together in 1996 to form
Boston Medical Center (BMC). But the acute care hospital and the academic teaching hospital never physically
consolidated, meaning they both continued to operate
programs on the same campus for several years, each with
approximately 250 beds and overlapping services.
While there had been discussions about merging and
building a new patient tower to meet expectations of a
growing census, not much changed until a perfect storm hit:
the economic downturn, followed by cuts in reimbursement
rates. "That's when the inefficiencies of the campus arose as
a big obstacle," says Neal Emmer, a principal at architecture
firm Levi + Wong Design Associates Inc. (LWDA; Concord,
Mass.). "That's where a lot of their resources were going,
and if they could stop or reduce the financial losses, they
would have an opportunity to remain viable."
Down south in Baton Rouge, La., Our Lady of the Lake
Regional Medical Center, a private, not-for-profit 802-bed
hospital, was facing a different challenge a few years ago:
population growth. "We had the unique situation that postKatrina we were growing in what was forecasted to be a
shrinking marketplace," says Terrie Sterling, executive vice
president and chief operating officer at Our Lady of the
Lake, which is part of Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady
Health System.
Part of that growth was driven by a relocated New
Orleans population that chose to stay in Baton Rouge
instead of move back home to a city still rebuilding. In
addition, the governor of Louisiana had proposed a new
public-private partnership for the state that focused on
expanding medical education, retaining physicians, and
increasing networks of care sites for crisis situations.
Brenda Bush-Moline, principal and healthcare director
at VOA Associates Inc. (Chicago), says these shifts together put Our Lady of the Lake in a position of not worrying if

patients would come. Instead, the medical center had to
figure out the most efficient and cost-effective way to meet
its growing demand, while identifying which service lines it
should grow to remain competitive.
For both of these facilities, master planning was the
answer; however, it's become a far more complex process
than ever before. "In the past, hospitals focused mainly on
just the physical aspect of [master planning]," says Jonathan Gyory, a principal at LWDA. "But today, if they don't
focus on every other aspect of how it relates to community
care, their relationships with doctors, and their off-site facilities-and look at this within the context of the accountable care system-they won't be approaching it right."
Emmer agrees: "They really have to figure out where
their cost and profit centers are, what alignments they're
going to make, and what specialty service lines they're
going to offer."

44

HCDmagazine.com 05.15

FINDING
THE WAY
A tale of two healthcare campuses and the shortand long-term goals of their owners provides a
glimpse into the challenges-and opportunities-
of master planning in the 21st century
By Anne DiNardo
http://www.HCDmagazine.com
Healthcare Design - May 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Healthcare Design - May 2015
