In March, the Greater Baltimore Medical Center (GBMC) in Towson, MD, unveiled a full-size mock-up of one of the new patient rooms that will be included in the addition to their existing medical center. Dubbed “The Promise Project,” this is GBMC’s largest project in 25 years, spanning 120,000 sq. ft., including a three-story extension to the existing hospital, 60 patient rooms, with upgraded team stations, a modern new front entrance lobby, reception area, healing garden, chapel and more. The full-size patient room mock-up is the latest in a series of mock-ups that not only help GBMC decision-makers achieve stakeholder alignment, and ensure quality and constructability in construction, but also will be an asset generating excitement for the project with patients, staff, community and donors.

“We had been in the design and planning phase for over a year, and many disciplines have been involved. The mock-up was built to showcase the new room design and to generate excitement about the project as we get ready to move to the public phase of fundraising. Every decision we made reflected our commitment to delivering the highest quality patient care and best experience to our medical team, families, and other caregivers,” said Dr. John Chessare, President & CEO of the GBMC HealthCare System.

DPR introduced mock-ups as a strategy to avoid potentially costly delays or change orders during construction. By ensuring that the new space would fit the needs of clinicians, patients and facilities staff early in the design and preconstruction phase, the team aimed to reduce rework and to build cost and construction efficiencies into the process.

They began with spatial mock-ups to determine the workflow of the rooms, and based on this information, constructed a full finish mock-up to pinpoint material lead times and potential quality issues. This ultimately led to alignment with GBMC stakeholders to help ensure project success. The process allowed GBMC and Hammes, the construction owner’s representative, to make informed decisions about materials and prefabrication strategy, and to incorporate lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The in-place spatial mock-ups provided the architect, owner, and clinical staff a hands-on approach to designing the 'final' layout of the rooms,” said DPR Project Executive, Bill Hahner. “These spatial mock-ups were used to help maintain the quality of the rooms, in addition to providing a smooth decision-making process while creating alignment within multidisciplinary groups at GBMC.”

The initial mock-up was built in March 2020 and reviewed over the next few months as the healthcare landscape changed in Baltimore. Collaboration between DPR, the Hord Coplan Macht design team, Hammes and GBMC on the mock-up brought forth a high level of quality and attention to detail. This is especially important as the new acuity adaptable patient rooms will feature technical systems that support a variety of clinical functions, as well as enhance the patient experience and safety.

For example, the updated facility will incorporate the ability to convert patient rooms to negative pressure rooms to ensure any infectious airborne particles are contained within the rooms. The rooms will have built-in screens at the bedside to provide convenience and safety to patients. Each new patient room will have double-sided access for supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE), a smarter way to stop the spread of pathogens, like the one behind the COVID-19 pandemic.

“One of the biggest improvements in the rooms is a result of lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. The unit design will provide us with the ability to make each room a negative pressure room, which will help us protect against infectious diseases,” said Dr. John R. Saunders, Jr., GBMC Board Member.

Early in 2021, the team progressed to building the full-finishes mock-up to realistically gauge the quality, durability, and constructability. GBMC decided to place these finalized mock-ups in a high visibility, public location: their main lobby.

“The new rooms will be quite spacious (double the size of our current rooms) to more appropriately accommodate patient and clinical staff needs and will have advanced soundproofing to facilitate the rest and healing process. Other improvements include more storage for patient belongings and a new bathroom that is ADA compliant, allowing for easier use by all patients,” said JoAnn Z. Ioannou, DNP, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, Executive Vice President of Hospital Operations & Chief Nursing Officer.

DPR will break ground on the GBMC Promise Project in Summer 2021. The Promise Project will expand GBMC’s commitment to enhanced patient care in Maryland.

“We are thrilled to be a part of this work in Baltimore. We’re invested in the area and appreciate the chance to support pillars in our community like GBMC. We’re excited to be able to contribute,” stated Hahner.