News
CLEVELAND, OH; January 9, 2012 -- Perspectus Architecture is proud to serve as Architect of Record for the new laboratory building on the Cleveland Clinic’s main campus which houses the hospital's Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Institute and Cleveland Clinic Laboratories. The Clinic celebrated the grand opening of this $75 million, three-story building in January 2012.
The Perspectus team was led by Bill Ayars AIA ACHA and Vlad Novakovic AIA NCARB. Staying true to the building’s design concept, based on an ideal lab module and the client’s directive to provide a flexible environment for future growth and technology, is the primary distinguishing factor. Clinical laboratories operate more uniformly than research laboratories based on procedural protocols. The module in the lab defines individual work aisles organized around utility service chases. Service loops are located within the ceiling plenum of the labs with vertical services chases on a module that is aligned with the column grid to maximize clear lines of site throughout the open lab area. The open lines of site provide a key safety feature in the clinical lab environment. Future services can be extended to all areas simply by isolating each individual work aisle and incorporating new services within the open chases. Adjacent Clinical areas will remain operational during the isolated retrofit of services.
A second distinguishing feature was defined by the Cleveland Clinic’s benchmark of LEED Certification for all new construction projects. The New Laboratory Building is currently tracking LEED Gold, with Silver being the project goal. Achieving the Gold benchmark will distinguish this project as a precedent in Clinical Laboratory design from the LEED perspective.
For more details about the new laboratory building, read the following story published in the January 2, 2012 issue of Crain’s Cleveland Business.
Clinic pursues new revenue by expanding lab operation
By TIMOTHY MAGAW; January 2, 2012
The Cleveland Clinic is putting the final touches on a $75 million building that officials hope will pump new blood into the health care juggernaut’s revenue stream.
The three-story, 135,000-square-foot building at the intersection of East 105th Street and Carnegie Avenue in Cleveland will house the Clinic’s Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Institute — the arm of the Clinic that conducts various forms of medical testing for doctors throughout the health care system.
The lab on the Clinic’s main campus currently conducts about 12 million tests a year; about 10% of those tests are for health care providers across the country, and they’re performed for a fee. Officials wouldn’t disclose how much revenue the lab generates, but with the construction of the new building, the Clinic hopes to quadruple that business line over the next five years, according to Dr. David Bosler, head of Cleveland Clinic Laboratories.
The move to expand its laboratory operations aligns with the Clinic’s overall strategy — and that of other health care systems throughout Northeast Ohio — to diversify their revenue streams given the uncertainty surrounding government reimbursements and a dwindling patient base in the region.
“The Clinic has a strong presence in Northeast Ohio. There’s no doubt about it, and that’s not going to change,” Dr. Bosler said. “When the Clinic looks for growth, there’s only so much market share in Northeast Ohio. It makes sense to look outward.”
The Clinic, for one, has operations in Canada, Florida, Nevada and, by 2013, Abu Dhabi. However, an expansion of its laboratory and pathology offerings will allow the Clinic to reach a broader patient base — and thus generate more revenue — without investing in bricks and mortar across the country or the world.
“It’s a large market, and even the biggest hospitals send out some testing,” said Dr. Kandice Kottke-Marchant, chair of the Clinic’s Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Institute.
The Mayo Clinic — one of the Clinic’s top competitors — in Rochester, Minn., already runs one of the largest groups of medical laboratories in the country. According to a spokesman, Mayo’s laboratories perform 20 million tests a year and have more than 4,000 clients from all 50 states and more than 60 countries.
While Clinic officials wouldn’t share revenue projections, the expanded operations are expected to net 350 to 400 new jobs in the labs by 2018. The Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Institute currently employs about 1,400 people, 850 of whom are on the main campus.
The hiring is expected to add about five new sales jobs this year in the Southeast and along the Atlantic Seaboard. The current sales team of nine primarily is based in the Midwest, with additional staff in Florida and Alabama, Dr. Bosler said.
“It’s much easier for a specimen to travel across country than it is for a patient to travel across the country,” Dr. Bosler said.
Advancing the mission
The new building is expected to serve as the eastern gateway to the Clinic’s main campus. It is strewn with system’s trademark sterile white and gray color scheme preferred by its CEO, Dr. Delos “Toby” Cosgrove. It’s also the first building Dr. Cosgrove has helped develop from its inception to completion since he was named CEO in 2004.
Armed with the latest technology, the new building is expected to allow the institute to add to its roster of 2,200 different types of tests and open new research opportunities, Dr. Kottke-Marchant said. It also doubles the square footage available for the institute, which hasn’t had new space in 30 years, as some of the institute’s staff will continue to occupy its current space on Carnegie Avenue on the southern portion of the Clinic campus.
While patients, for the most part, likely won’t see the inside of the testing facility, its services will impact the majority of the patients navigating the health care system. About 70% of all decisions regarding diagnosis and treatment rely on medical testing.
“I really do believe this project helps further the Cleveland Clinic mission,” Dr. Bosler said. “It drives innovation and creates educational opportunities.”