Project category: Addition (completed May 2004)

Chief administrator: Bruce Hagen, President, (614) 566-5000

Firm: Karlsberger, (614) 461-9500

Design team: Robert L. Grundey, AIA, Project Manager; Jane H. Peters, AIA, Architectural Designer; Wesley D. Hawkins, AIA, Architectural Designer; Linda M. Gabel, IIDA, Interior Designer; Daniel J. Clements III, SEGD, Graphic Designer, Wayfinding

Photography: ©2004 Brad Feinknopf

Total building area (sq. ft.): 178,300

Construction cost/sq. ft.: $236

Total construction cost (excluding land): $42,000,000

Riverside Methodist Hospital is a market leader, both in service and in consumer preference, in Columbus, Ohio. As a leader in both heart care and emergency care, its consumer demand increased significantly and quickly, ultimately exceeding the capacity of Riverside’s staff and facilities. These factors clearly outlined a need for a new asset that could accommodate the community’s needs by combining these two vital services in an integrated, state-of-the-art facility.

During the research phase of this project, the admission rate for acute care patients was double the national average. This high patient volume posed significant operational challenges for clinical staff. Concurrently, Riverside Heart Services had a rapidly growing program burdened by an aging facility and dispersed locations. The community’s growing demand for heart services had forced the department to expand to a wide array of locations on the vast Riverside campus, and patient flow had become disjointed among seven different floors.

The proposed solution was for a freestanding building that contained a state-of-the-art emergency department on the first floor and a cutting-edge heart hospital directly above the ED on the second and third floors. It was an innovative and revolutionary idea for Central Ohio and for the healthcare industry.

The project facilitated a unified vision for emergency and heart services so that the new facility could meet a combined goal: “Construction of a new facility that optimizes the relationship between heart services and emergency services, provides capacity for growth, and creates opportunities to maximize operational efficiencies and the patient/family experience.”