Northeast Georgia Medical Center, Gainesville Activation and Transition Planning
A seamless move for a new patient tower
- Client
- Northeast Georgia Medical Center
- Location
- Georgia, United States
- Size
- 847,574 square feet
- Status
- Completed
When Northeast Georgia Health System (NGHS) – comprised of five hospitals varying from rural campuses to a large Level I Trauma Center – prepared to open a new state-of-the-art tower to expand clinical services at Northeast Georgia Medical Center Gainesville, they required a seamless transition and activation. More than just a physical move, this was a once-in-a-generation transformation requiring focused planning, operational alignment and multidisciplinary coordination to ensure patient safety and organizational readiness from day one.
Blue Cottage of CannonDesign partnered with NGHS in the months leading up to go-live, using proven tools to surface current-state challenges, align stakeholders, and drive future-state planning. The result: a smooth, surprise-free opening with no adverse patient events and a confident launch into the next era of care delivery.
Constructing a "Day in the Life"
NGHS participated in a Day in the Life simulation—an essential, coordinated exercise designed to test hospital readiness ahead of opening day. This simulation replicates real-life patient scenarios to evaluate building functionality and ensure staff are fully prepared to deliver safe, effective care from day one.
During the Day in the Life exercise, scripted scenarios followed patients through their entire care journey, testing everything from clinical processes and department handoffs to travel paths, building systems, and integrated technologies. Hundreds of staff from multiple departments participated, working through simulations as they would in actual patient care situations.
The end goal was to build confidence and enthusiasm among the team while identifying any critical path issues that must be addressed before go-live and the building’s opening. It was a proactive, hands-on approach to ensuring a smooth and successful transition into the new space.
Preparing for the move
The hospital developed detailed plans to transfer 80 acute and critical care patients from their existing facility to the new tower on what is called “go-live day.” A mock patient move was conducted as a simulation exercise to test these move day operations—this included the planned sequence of transfers, timing, travel routes and safety procedures.
Unlike the broader Day in the Life simulation, this integrated exercise covered many aspects of the move day relocation process—such as serving meals on move day, medication delivery, team communications, handoffs and real-time use of the Electronic Health Record system to monitor transfer status. The mock move is more targeted and focuses specifically on go-live day activities, ensuring that patients can be safely and efficiently transported from point A (their current location) to point B (the new facility) without surprises and reducing the likelihood of an adverse event.
