Construction of Northeast Georgia Medical Center on Schedule

MILWAUKEE — Construction on the Northeast Georgia Medical Center Braselton recently reached a significant milestone when the project completed its structural steel topping-off.

Slated for a spring 2015 completion, Minneapolis-headquartered HGA Architects and Engineers designed the 100-bed hospital and Turner Construction, headquartered in New York, is serving as construction manager on the project. As the first new hospital in the state of Georgia in more than 20 years, the new health care facility will bring a new level of patient care to the Greater Braselton community.

“The on-going evolution in health care delivery methods, technology, demographics and reimbursements is placing increasing incentive on hospitals to develop new ways to improve patient services,” said Kurt Spiering, AIA, vice president and principal of HGA’s Healthcare Practice Group, in a statement. “Community hospitals, in particular, are re-aligning their operational processes with a growing emphasis on accountable care. To prosper in the future, community hospitals are positioning themselves as leaders that can cost-effectively deliver quality care and services rivaling any larger hospital nationally. Northeast Georgia Medical Center Braselton is on the forefront of improving patient-centered services with a state-of-the-art community hospital that promotes safety, medical innovation and team-based care.”

Located on a 119-acre River Place campus, the new hospital will offer heart and vascular services orthopedics and neurosciences, cancer treatment, surgery and emergency services. Early in the planning stages, the design team identified seven guiding principles for NGMC Braselton:

• To create a total patient experience that is among the best in the world
• To use evidence-based principles to provide extraordinary safety and clinical outcomes
• To create a setting for physicians and staff that supports their effectiveness through coordinated team-based care
• To create a setting that is sustainable and advances the wellness and safety of patients, families, staff community and the environment
• To innovate through the creation of new ideas
• To create an overall health care destination “village” of which the hospital is but one piece

The design team also conducted a series of public forums, workshops and online surveys to identify the ideal patient experience and followed up with a series of Lean process transformation exercises with hospital staff to create operational practices that allow for smarter workflow.

“Rather than starting from a traditional programming method of designing from the outside in, we approached the project as clinical consultants, planning the clinical processes first and then the structure,” Spiering said. “We based every decision on a research-based approach in coordination with the NGHS Lean Six Sigma Team.”