Leon Drachman recently presented at the Tradeline’s Academic Medical and Health Science Centers 2013 Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida. Leon led a panel presentation that included A. Craig Hillemeier, Professor/Chair of Department of Pediatrics and Medical Director, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Children’s Hospital; and Gil S. Pak, Operations Director, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Children’s Hospital.
Following a campus master plan in 2002, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center embarked on a series of individual projects that would result in the largest expansion ever undertaken by the medical center since the teaching hospital opened its doors in the 1960’s. Ten years later, the plan reached full implementation. Two major new clinical facilities, a 2,200 parking garage, renovation of several clinical departments, campus-wide infrastructure upgrades, 30 acres of new site development and a new main lobby for the medical center were built during a decade-long, continuous effort. The result: a medical campus is transformed; an institution is rebranded.
The session discussed the successful implementation of the Ten-Year Master Plan at the Hershey Medical campus in Hershey PA. The presenters focused on answering two critical questions: as Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center contemplated the daunting task of transforming its teaching hospital campus, it faced two major challenges:
1. From the planning perspective: How to ensure that the massive collection of renovation and new construction projects – including the addition of 1.2 million square feet of new construction of clinical buildings and parking garages – would result in a unified campus environment; a campus that is comprehensible, clear, connected and friendly?
2. From the management perspective: How to ensure that the medical center community – especially its leadership, faculty, staff and local community – would remain focused and supportive throughout the difficult, decade-long process of implementation?
The solution to both problems turned out to be one and the same: Design.
The panel introduced the 10-year plan and its key components, as well as the design and management techniques that made its successful completion possible. The session addressed issues of growth and density, physical connectivity, resource-sharing strategies, professional collaboration, infrastructural stress and institutional identity. Through the specific example of the Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Children’s Hospital -the largest and most recent element of the plan- the presenters discussed the delicate balance between the overall integrity of the medical center and the unique identity of its individual components.
Related:
Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Clinical Quadrangle Master Plan
Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Cancer Institute
Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Children’s Hospital
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