Cleveland Clinic’s New Hospital, Built for the Information Age

Start with a hole in the ground. Then imagine you could design an all-new hospital from the basement up: An evidence-based facility for the information age, where patient comfort was paramount and every detail was studied to drive outcomes and efficiency.

Cleveland Clinic recently had this opportunity. Cleveland Clinic Avon Hospital, opened in November 2016 in Avon, Ohio, is the right hospital for the patient of today – and a living laboratory of the healthcare of the future.

Putting knowledge into practice

“It’s a new kind of hospital for a new era in healthcare,” says Toby Cosgrove, MD, CEO and President of Cleveland Clinic. “The design reflects everything we’ve learned about 21st-century healthcare, taking our best practices and developing a hospital where we operate more efficiently, reduce duplication and utilize the latest technological advancements for the benefit of our patients.”

The new facility is 212,000 square feet, with 126 private rooms, six operating rooms, ICUs and imaging. It’s linked to Cleveland Clinic’s Richard E. Jacobs Health Center and its newly expanded Emergency Department to provide the full continuum of care.

Here are five remarkable things about Cleveland Clinic Avon Hospital:

1. The design is evidence-based – The architects built real and virtual mock-ups of rooms to study how they were used by patient and caregiver volunteers. Clinical areas are equipped based on best practices and proven use value. Caregivers are able to reference hundreds of Cleveland Clinic care paths for the full range of disease conditions.
2. It’s the first hospital in the region to be entirely designed and built after the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010 – Dr. Cosgrove has observed that “the ACA was the biggest change to happen in healthcare in 100 years.” Among the many effects the ACA has had is to hasten the move from volume-based to value-based medicine. Cleveland Clinic Avon Hospital is built with full consciousness that it must produce value through efficiency and better outcomes — providing the most appropriate care and minimizing the need for hospitalization. It meets all regulatory requirements out of the box, with systems and processes optimized for data collection and reporting.
3. It exemplifies a new era of flexibility – Cleveland Clinic Avon Hospital is not burdened with legacy systems and facilities left from the days when a community hospital was expected to be all things to all people. The majority of patients at Avon will have a shorter length of stay, but the level of care provided will be adjusted by each patient’s need.
4. It’s communications-optimized – Doctors, nurses and other caregivers can communicate with each other instantly, wherever they are in the facility, through small, wearable devices. They use mobile computer work stations that they log into instantly with a tap of their ID badges. Multipurpose video screens in patient rooms are used for entertainment, education and interactive consultation with specialists anywhere in the Cleveland Clinic health system.
5. It’s never going to be “finished” – The future of healthcare is a story of constant change. Cleveland Clinic Avon Hospital is built for maximum flexibility — permitting easy configuration for whatever new treatments, processes and breakthroughs come down the pike. It is a laboratory of innovation and clinical transformation — in a permanent state of becoming, even as it provides the best possible outcomes and patient experience.

“Ours is the only hospital in Northeast Ohio that has these technological advances to this degree throughout the hospital,” says Rebecca Starck, MD, President of Cleveland Clinic Avon Hospital. “Our goal is to provide the highest quality care in the most efficient way at a manageable cost for patients.”