OLATHE, Kan. – Olathe Health Physicians Inc. officially opened its doors to the Olathe Hedge Lane Clinic with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in October 2017. The event marked the opening of the the $2.2. million, 9,400-square-foot multipurpose facility, which provides primary care, radiology, X-rays and lab services.

The design-build project partnered lead architect Hoefer Wysocki Architecture of Leawood, Kan., and general contractor Meyers Brothers Building Co. of Kansas City, Mo., together to create a new, reusable prototype of a single-story, outpatient medical office building. The layout was created in pods that can be easily replicated to allow the clinic to expand if needed, and delivers next-generation access to healthcare in the community.

“Unlike traditional urgent care facilities, the Hedge Lane Clinic has radiology, X-ray and lab capabilities with primary care and family medicine physicians and nurses to provide diagnostic and treatment services,” said Hoefer Wysocki Principal-in-Charge Jim Sterman, AIA, NCARB, in a statement. “The goal was to create an iconic, one-stop facility that would efficiently meet healthcare needs of the surrounding community. Olathe residents can now schedule regular checkups, blood work, X-rays and more, all in one location while avoiding time-consuming trips to a hospital.”

Sterman explained how Hoefer Wysocki worked with Olathe Health to explore different ways to incorporate their visual brand identity into the interior and exterior space.

On the exterior, a lighted band of color marks the main entrance, resulting in a signature beacon that is easily recognized from a greater distance than traditional signage could achieve. The goal was to deliver the same visual impact to the clinic’s interior, and the design team took a holistic approach to this through color. The same blues and greens highlight every room of the clinic. It’s seen in the carpet behind the reception desk and in the provider spaces. The same color palette accents walls throughout the clinic, and the reception area has the Olathe Medical symbol on their reception glass. The interior design team assisted the owner in selecting furnishings that compliment the new brand in terms of shape, style and color.

With the many challenges that come along with healthcare projects of this magnitude, the biggest challenge for this project was designing for technology and delivery methods that don’t yet exist. In order for future expansions to be executed without interruption to clinical operations, the project required thoughtful space planning and design, with flexibility and adaptability first and foremost.

The patient rooms were strategically placed between the reception area and healthcare team offices to create an efficient system. This design was created to minimize medical personnel and patient walking distances. “Efficiency and replication were the best practices used in this design process,” said Sterman. “The efficiency in layout in the exam section of the facility decreases the time the patient is back being seen.”

With this design, the modular, smaller-scale clinic ultimately humanizes healthcare. The clinic offers easy access to healthcare at a scale that is more approachable and less intimidating than a hospital campus, with more diagnostic and treatment capabilities than a traditional doctor’s office. Families can now attend to multiple medical needs in a single location that’s close to home.

Hedge Lane Clinic Focuses on Efficiency

From an operational perspective, the clinic design focuses on efficiency — reducing nursing staff’s footsteps and allowing more time for patient care. Secondly, the zoning of the clinic modules prevents the mixing of patients and the medical team work centers. This separation improves intuitive wayfinding for patients and visitors as well as optimizes the efficiencies of the medical team by reducing distractions of having patients mix in the nurse charting area.

Not only will the Hedge Lane clinic help provide effective and timely patient care, but it has already provided a connection to the community. Sterman explained that before they completed construction, patients were already booking appointments. The Olathe Clinic was completed in time for flu shot season and the community flocked to the site once it opened. “It’s so rewarding to actually see that our work is positively impacting a community. High design is very important to our firm but it’s the end user’s experience that matters most,” said Sterman.

What was pioneering in this project was not technology, but the building type itself. Olathe Health works to stay on the edge of the continually changing healthcare market. With patients now as consumers, Olathe Health wanted to transform its healthcare delivery capabilities to better meet the needs of the community.

“This project has accomplished just that,” concluded Sterman.

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The project team for the expansion included THW Design in San Antonio as the architect on the project, with San Antonio-based Brandt Construction serving as the general contractor. The new tower includes 147 rooms, a dedicated children’s imaging department with a new state-of-the-art CT scanner, an ultrasound room and X-ray rooms.

The Methodist Hospital, owned by Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), has added over 400,000 square feet to the Methodist Campus since the completion of the new Children’s Hospital addition. The expansion of the Children’s Hospital added 15 new emergency rooms, increasing the number from 25 to 40. The new tower also adds 18 beds in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for a total of 94 beds. The recent addition makes the Methodist Children’s Hospital one of the largest NICU’s in the area.

“The growing demands for children’s services in San Antonio and South Texas really is what led to this,” said Robert Lenza, chief executive officer at the Children’s Hospital in a recent statement. “Our population continues to grow. A few years ago we realized we needed to build even more expansive rooms for our patients.”

The hospital was originally built in 1998, and was the first hospital in South Texas designed to meet the specific needs of children. Along those lines, the new expansion was designed with plenty of bright colors and windows to continue with this long tradition, with a plan to design the space to reflect the community the hospital serves.

“We built specific rooms so that families can stay together,” said Lenza in a recent statement. “We took into account the demographic of all types of families we have here in San Antonio.”

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A groundbreaking ceremony was already held in October 2014 to mark the beginning of construction on the new medical center, designed to serve U.S. and NATO Allied Forces operating in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and to care for wounded service men and women coming from wars in the Middle East, Europe, Africa and the Southwest Asia region. It will replace the U.S. Army’s Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and the Ramstein Air Base Clinic. HOK, with offices in Washington, D.C., completed architectural engineering services for the first 20 percent of the design, while HDR will provide these services for the final 80 percent.

“This important location in Germany is, and has been, a strategic lifesaving place for the United States. The last 13-plus years of conflict have validated and proven the vital need for world-class military medical care in this region of the world,” said Lt. Gen. Donald Campbell Jr. at the 2014 groundbreaking ceremony.

The $990 million ROBMCR will include nine operating rooms, 68 beds and 120 examination rooms, and will include a surge capacity that will allow it to rapidly expand to 93 beds. Work is scheduled to begin immediately and continue over a planned eight-year design and construction delivery period. The project will be produced completely using Building Information Management (BIM) and will comply with U.S. and German building codes. The center is scheduled to open in 2022.

The ROBMCR works with Walter Reed Medical Center in the Washington, D.C., area, which HDR is also designing. These two medical centers make up the most politically sensitive assets in the U.S. Department of Defense’s medical facility portfolio.

“We are honored that our team has been selected for this important project, which will complete the continuum of care between Landstuhl, Germany and Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. — also being designed to world-class standards,” said Gus Ardura, U.S. military director, HDR, and Johannes Kresimon, German managing director, HDR|TMK, in a statement. “We look forward to working closely with the military medical leadership in both countries over the next eight years to bring forward the most advanced facilities in the U.S. Department of Defense portfolio.”
 

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