The Innova Group

Reliant Medical Group

Worcester, Massachusetts, USA

When the opportunity arose for Reliant Medical Group to rethink distribution of care delivery sites, clinical operations, and space standards, they engaged The Innova Group to lead them through a process of visioning and developing a new clinical facility portfolio.

Delivery Network and Master Planning

Reliant Medical Group (RMG) is a 250-provider medical practice in Central Massachusetts.   RMG has a long history of working in a capitated/risk model, has a mature relationship with electronic records and other technologies, and has been continually improving and innovating for many years.  With over 20 sites of outpatient care, many planned on now-outdated operating methods, idiosyncratic preferences of the individual occupants and/or the configuration that the existing space would allow, and more than half of RMG’s primary care facilities under a master lease agreement that might not be renewed, this provided an unprecedented opportunity to redesign the distribution of care sites, envision new workflows and patient experience, and develop a built environment where form can truly follow function.

The Innova Group worked with Reliant Medical Group to:

  • Develop an ideal geographic distribution of new and current sites of care that optimizes access, capital costs, operational costs, and population health management goals
  • Create a standardized template for an RMG “Medical Office Building of the Future”
  • Create a common vision for end-to-end flow of patients, staff, and providers in the new facilities (pre-visit through post-visit)
  • Identify the space requirements and flow to support Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH), lean operations, and virtual care
  • Develop basic operating rules and standards for allocation of space, room sizes/types, approach to resource sharing, etc. in the ambulatory environment though benchmarking and facilitation of consensus among multiple stakeholders
  • Develop key room configuration design standards (e.g. exam room, consult room, etc.)
  • Create functional narratives for future space development
  • Ensure the planned operating and care distribution model has positive economics