One project of St. Mary's Hospital's multi-year program to improve its facilities was to upgrade the Hospital's main lobby. The goals were to improve circulation, provide better access to services, assure patient confidentiality, and provide a more inviting and aesthetically pleasing first impression on entering the Hospital.

Hyman Hayes Associates designed a new $625,000 9,000-sf lobby area that accommodates a pre-admission testing space, an outpatient laboratory/phlebotomy area, patient registration department, and a new medical imaging area. A skylight in the lobby provides abundant natural light, and a new information desk, coffee shop, and windowed gift shop add welcomed amenities.

The reconfigured spaces and circulation patterns result in:

• decreased interaction of patients and non-patients
• separate inpatient/ staff elevators from outpatient elevators for increased privacy
• high visibility between the lobby and all ambulatory departments
• improved spaces and privacy for imaging patients