The SimTigrate Design Lab hosted a team of providers and medical assistants from Mercy Care to help the clinic redesign the team room at their Decatur Street location. Mercy Care provides primary care to low income uninsured patients, about 60% of whom are homeless.

"The redesign is expected to improve patient care by providing interdisciplinary teams—physician or nurse practitioner, CMA, behavioral health specialist, and those involved in their patients’ care such as registered nurses, referral specialists, resources specialists, health educators— with a common space to collaborate in the midst of patient care; promoting communication and care coordination among team members and facilitating patient flow," said Mercy Care Marketing Manager Denise Garlow.

Dr. Michael Toedt from Cherokee Indian Hospital facilitated exercises where care teams from Mercy simulated patient care scenarios in three different team room layouts in the SimTigrate Lab. The purpose of the exercises was to see how the space impacts their communication and collaboration. Herman Miller sponsored the project by providing design services and furniture for the layouts.

“This project has been a wonderful opportunity for us to utilize the knowledge and skills we have developed to impact the daily experience of the clinical staff of this mission driven organization,” said SimTigrate Design Lab Associate Director Jennifer DuBose.

Cherokee Indian Hospital is a previous SimTigrate sponsor; the lab also conducted observations of their existing team rooms and made recommendations for their new clinic. Dr. Toedt was so pleased with the experience that he volunteered his time on the Mercy Care project.

The project is funded by the Academy of Architecture for Health Foundation and an internal grant from the College of Architecture.