Albany Medical Center sought to consolidate its outpatient cardiac services and physicians into a new building on its campus. Hyman Hayes Associates was chosen to design the new Heart Institute. Previously, outpatient services and physician offices were distributed throughout the facility. Patients were often inconvenienced because they had to navigate from one building to the next to get from an appointment to tests to another appointment.

The $1.2-million facility provides six distinct use/function areas: (exams, echo cardiograms, holter, tilt, stress tests, and pacemaker services) that are all combined into a highly efficient unit. Separate check-in and checkout areas minimize traffic congestion. Exam rooms line one corridor; physician offices and staff spaces are located behind the clinical corridor.