Marshall Medical Center Tenant Improvement: A New Care Model

A former call center is converted into a multispecialty care center that supports Marshall Medical’s distinct patient-centered care model and rebranding efforts.

In late 2022, foothills community healthcare provider Marshall Medical purchased a two-story Class A commercial building in El Dorado Hills, a Sacramento suburb, with the intent of converting the space into an orthopedic and specialty care center for the community.

Marshall’s goal was to champion a patient-focused care center with an easily accessible mix of sports rehab, orthopedic and primary care services for the area’s active, outdoorsy population. The facility would also be Marshall’s first project to reflect the 66-year-old company’s comprehensive rebranding effort, which would be rolling out to all its facilities.

“This is an active and growing community, and Marshall wanted to bring comprehensive care closer to where it’s needed,” says LPA Senior Project Manager Carrie Bridge. “We all saw this as an opportunity to explore how a new care model could best support Marshall’s collaborative approach to patient care.”

LPA’s healthcare and interior design teams worked with Marshall to create a master plan for the facility, exploring every aspect of the existing conditions, floor plan and medical operations. The company wanted a plan to help guide designers of its future facilities, including choices that could be tailored for each community. Marshall executives and providers, including orthopedists, cardiologists and primary care physicians, participated in visioning and goal-setting sessions where different space concepts were shared and analyzed alongside a set of established goals and guiding principles for the project. Discussions focused on today’s healthcare challenges and potential changes to the care model in the years ahead.

“LPA did a good job guiding us and determining what was important to us as an organization, and infusing that into the project,” says Jonathan Russell, Marshall’s chief ambulatory officer. “We have ideas and visions and concepts, but I think they took those visions and concepts and made it workable.”

Supporting Staff

The new Marshall El Dorado Hills (EDH) multispecialty care clinic features a design program focused on flexibility and wellness, reflecting the active, outdoor-focused Northern California community it serves. The El Dorado Hills community is known for hiking, biking and taking their sports seriously, requiring a clinic focused on orthopedic excellence with the ability to offer a range of therapies and treatments. Every element of the patient experience was explored to support the needs of the specific community, as well as Marshall’s new brand.

Situated on the ground floor of a former call center, the 25,000-square foot facility is grouped around an open central lobby, check-in desk alongside the option for self-serve check-in kiosks. Under one roof, the center provides orthopedic care, sports medicine, cardiology, podiatry, diagnostic imaging, blood draw and lab services, rehab and physical therapy, along with same-day care — the only facility of its kind in the foothills community offering this full menu of care services.

The new facility brings together this unique combination of care services, alongside a focus on patient comfort and improving the staff experience. Instead of a traditional care model with private physician offices separated from the care team, the hybrid, onstage/offstage design positions the care team all together, along the exterior edge of the building with patient care spaces along the interior to allow distinct pathways for provider and patient. This care model design shifts the care team into dedicated private space, near windows and natural light, to increase collaboration, with views of nature, all the while decreasing distractions of patients walking by their workstations. “Offstage” areas offer employees a place to work and relax away from the public’s eye.

“We are creating a much nicer physical space for our staff to work,” Russell says. “If you provide a better space — a better onstage, offstage experience for the staff — you have more satisfied workers and better patient care.”

Design for the Future

The former call center open floor plan, with larger structural grid designs, was essentially a clean slate. This allowed all 25 exam rooms to be uniformly designed to 10 x 12 feet, improving the ability to transition services without costly reconfigurations. The floor plan and wayfinding design preserve Marshall’s ability to switch to a “self-rooming” model for patients, if needed in the future.

“In this space, we were able to build flexibility into the spaces for many different medical specialties in the future,” Russell says. “That affords us a lot of opportunity down the road.”

Marshall’s branding initiative was integrated into the design concept from the start of the process. The health group’s new vibrant colors, logo and natural elements helped establish Marshall’s welcoming community atmosphere, which is grounded in their Sierra foothills presence, while creating a more uplifting and vibrant patient experience.

“They purposely went out and picked colors that you don’t see in healthcare,” LPA Design Director Rick D’Amato says. “There is a vibrancy here that you’re not typically seeing in the region’s healthcare systems, relating specifically to that region.”

Incorporating the new Marshall brand alongside the new model of care, the design team helped Marshall create an environment that is patient-centered, welcoming and efficient, serving the specific needs of the community. The facility breaks down barriers of the traditional medical office building, establishing a foundation for Marshall’s future in the region.