It takes a team

At Mercy Medical Center, problem-solving is the responsibility of the entire organization. Using the Lean 3P model, Mercy depends on its employees to continuously improve operations and deliver increasingly efficient patient care.

So when Mercy decided to replace their outdated, inefficient emergency department, they relied on input from all of the doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel who work there. They also invited a mortician and the mayor of Mason City, just for good measure.

All of them met in an empty warehouse and, guided by Flad Architects, they began to assess the hospital's emergency care needs. To imagine the ideal placement for supplies, gurneys, and equipment. To decide how wide the hallways and doorways should be. To best configure the admissions area and the waiting room. Then they built full size mock-ups out of cardboard and duct tape to test out their designs.

Eighteen months later, when the walls for the new emergency department were up, the finished space looked exactly like the cardboard model the team had created. And so far, the staff has found very little they would change or improve.