The hospital also trimmed more than 20 percent of the space originally planned for the Kay Jewelers Pavilion, which now stands at seven stories and 368,735 square feet and cost a total of $180 million.
Akron Children’s was able to reduce the space, cost and construction time of the new facility by holding a series of kaizen events at a warehouse. Full-scale, cardboard replicas of each floor of the pavilion were built so design teams could try out the space and make layout adjustments to get everything just right before starting construction.
The project savings enabled the hospital to invest in additional services not originally planned for the facility, including larger, specialized operating rooms, a dedicated space for high-risk deliveries and full radiology and MRI suites.
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