Kaiser Permanente is one of the most influential healthcare systems in the United States, and it serves more than 11 million people. As an integrated delivery system, Kaiser Permanente is both the payor for and the provider of healthcare services. As such, its goals are to keep people healthy, avoid unnecessary healthcare utilization, optimize access to services, and provide care in the lowest cost appropriate setting.
Kaiser Permanente invited international teams of multidisciplinary thinkers to conceptualize new ways to deliver high-quality health care. Kaiser Permanente called this the “Small Hospital Big Idea” design competition. The competition sought design concepts for a 100-bed, eco-conscious, patient- and family-friendly hospital that uses the best in emerging medical technology to coordinate and deliver care to Kaiser Permanente members.
There were over 100 blinded submissions and 3 finalist teams were funded to design a prototype 75-100 bed hospital that would be adaptable to multiple Kaiser Permanente markets. The finalists assembled teams of some of the world’s top minds in health care design, technology, and architecture. The Innova Group served as the lead operational and financial planners on one of two winning teams. The winners were cited as offering a fresh new approach to delivering care in a way that reinforces Kaiser Permanente’s commitment to providing exceptional and convenient care to their members and to building healthy communities.
Judgment criteria for the final selection included flexibility, creativity, innovation, incorporation of methods to improve health outcomes, capital and operating cost, and sustainability. The Innova Group worked in close collaboration with the architects and engineers to forecast an appropriately scaled facility that invests wisely in flexibility/adaptability and reduces the operating costs, while improving the patient and staff experience.