As the region’s population ages and cancer cases increase in the years ahead, the demand for City of Hope’s services will continue to grow. To prepare for this increase, institutional leaders recently commissioned a planning study on patient-care facilities to quantify the expected increase in number of patients and assess City of Hope’s ability to accommodate the growth.
A special session of the institution’s Senior Leadership Council met Sept. 3 to review and respond to the planning study.
 From left, John Zaia discusses campus space with Robert Powell and Robert Figlin at a Senior Leadership Council meeting. (Photo by Thomas Brown) |
The council was convened to consider market trends, patient-care volume forecasts and current facility capacity, and to offer input on how the campus can meet future demands. A major consideration for the group: how to best design new, expanded inpatient and outpatient space on campus to replace facilities dating back to the 1940s.
Dick Thompson, vice president for facilities, told the group that City of Hope needs space not only to accommodate growing numbers of patients, but also to meet state and federal safety requirements. Several patient-care facilities, including the former hospital building, do not meet current seismic codes for indefinite use. These buildings, which are currently on an extension from the original deadline for seismic codes, will no longer be allowed to house patient-care programs by 2013.
City of Hope engaged the architectural firm HDR to begin a planning process to address these issues. HDR has been gathering data on patient-care services at City of Hope, as well as interviewing a variety of patient-care leaders. HDR staff presented these data, along with trends and forecasts from Sg2, a health-care intelligence consultant, at the Sept. 3 meeting.
Sg2’s research predicted 11 percent more inpatient cancer cases and 22 percent more cancer surgeries at City of Hope by 2018. The consultant expects even more growth in outpatient procedures: a 26 percent rise.
Overall trends in care delivery highlighted by Sg2 included increasing affiliations among independent medical centers, a broader range of facilities offering advanced technologies, and more targeted and integrated therapies.
Sg2 pointed out that the numbers of successful stand-alone surgery, imaging and laboratory facilities would continue to increase. The consultant concluded that all of these patient demands should steer future facility design. Sg2 also stated that the best cancer-care models would incorporate both high-tech and compassionate care delivery, which City of Hope is well-positioned to continue to achieve.
HDR considered City of Hope’s current patient volumes, strategic plan goals and regional market when it created scenarios about future capacity. In all scenarios presented, City of Hope will need more patient beds and operating rooms — even if all current facilities were available indefinitely. HDR then showed early concepts to stimulate discussion on how campus patient-care facilities could be expanded over time.
Following the presentations, participants broke into small-group “visioning” sessions, in which leaders brainstormed on ideal future scenarios for patient-care delivery on campus.
Each group consistently reported the need for more patient-centered processes and facilities that would improve the overall patient-care experience.
The five-hour meeting was followed by individual sessions with the heads of patient-care programs to begin capturing more specific program needs.
Virginia Opipare, chief operating officer, said the process was at its earliest but perhaps most important stage. “It’s going to take a lot of trend and data analysis, along with continued planning, for us to determine the best approach for expansion of our patient-care facilities,” she said. “We’re going to be continuing to seek input from a wide variety of people in the organization and invite active participation in the process.”
City of Hope’s newly formed Senior Leadership Council is made up of the organization’s executive team, senior vice presidents and medical and scientific department chairs.
