In the early 2000’s Owensboro Health launched an assessment of the community and determined that the needs of the city of Owensboro and the surrounding 11 counties were not being met by the existing Owensboro-Daviess County Hospital. The existing facility was made up of multiple disconnected buildings with no architectural or infrastructure consistency with a central building that opened in 1941.  After years of expansion, the campus was now landlocked by downtown Owensboro and the railroads, with no room for expansion. Owensboro Health’s leadership determined that the best course of action would be to build a facility that would provide the community with high-quality care in a comfortable environment.  In 2008, Owensboro health selected the team of SSR, HGA, and Turner Construction to embark on the IPD project with the goal of delivering a new healthcare facility that centered on patient experience and staff satisfaction.

In designing the new facility, SSR and the IPD team were diligent in keeping key needs of Owensboro Health first. The project had a tight timeline and budget. To meet these requirements, lean design principals were applied. Because of the IPD arrangement, major MEP systems were selected early in design and the team was able to use pre-fabricated construction materials. Due to the close coordination among the design teams, multiple design packages were released, allowing construction to begin before design was completed. These factors allowed for shortened design and construction time.

Understanding that patient care and staff work-flow were important to the success of the facility, the design team met with staff to ensure that the facility was designed to allow efficient system selection. The building itself was designed to encourage healing and provide the patient with a pleasant experience. The facility was designed to include as many windows as possible, patient rooms are large enough to accommodate visitors in a relaxing environment, and digital wayfinding signs that are located around the hospital for easy navigation.

From the beginning, community involvement was paramount to the success of the facility. To help finance the project, a bond was taken out with a requirement that the facility provide improved patient performance. Hospital leadership also wanted to utilize local vendors when possible to keep revenue in the community. The design team frequently attended planning and zoning meetings to keep the community informed on the progress of the hospital. Communication with the community was key; hospital leadership wanted to ensure the community was aware of all the services offered and that their healthcare needs could all be met at the new facility. To help educate and familiarize the community with the new facility, the project team participated in open forums for the community, gave presentations on the project progress, and hosted open house tours prior to patient move-in.

When the 477-bed hospital opened in 2013, all involved parties were proud of the end result. Any concerns of the community had been addressed, staff now had an optimized facility, and patients are able to receive to- notch care in an environment that is state-of-the-art, as well as healing and calm.