Blue Ridge Health Care, McDowell Medical Associates

The McDowell Healthplex Medical Office Building is the consolidation of several medical practices, owned by Blue Ridge Hospital System. Combined in one location, this facility serves as a Patient Centered Medical Home for the community.

Week-Long Lean Event Results in Faster Through-put
Utilizing a Lean driven initiative, the team spent an intensive week with staff developing and streamlining their internal processes to improve outcomes. This process added value by focusing on efficient internal communications, patient through-put, registration, check-in, and check-out.

Try it Before You Build It: Measuring Efficiency in Full Scale Mockups
Staff reviewed drawings and full-scale cardboard mockups to test the design, inhabit the space, measure efficiency of movement in completing various daily tasks, and make revisions based on findings.

Efficient Use of Space Promotes Future Flexibility
By eliminating dedicated private physician offices and combining waiting areas, the design creates a hospitality effect that is soothing and welcoming to patients while allowing for flexible future growth and easy flipping of practices.

Practices Share Non-Clinical Areas and Exam Room Pods
Each practice has an efficient floor plan to satisfy its needs, while flexibility and space efficiency are provided by sharing common conference rooms, break rooms, and storage. Additional space efficiency is provided by an exam room pod design that allows several different specialties to share the space on a rotational basis.