Mercy Virtual

A center intended to expand specialized health care services to the entire Mercy network.

The Mercy Virtual Care Center is the first building on the 40-acre integrated Mercy Campus that reunites and facilitates learning, ministry, telemedicine, and clinical care. The beginning of a transformational approach to healthcare with 125,000 SF of highly flexible space that supports enhanced healthcare delivery systems that operate 24/7. The program incorporates telemedicine, care management, research analytics, and the business infrastructure to support and advance virtual care to both Mercy and non-affiliated patients. Monitoring patients across seven states, Mercy’s vICU provides personalized, data-driven care utilizing video and audio technology. Capitalizing on data analytics and innovative protocols, there’s been a 35% lower mortality rate and a 30% reduction in time spent in the ICU.

Throughout the design process, an effort was made to ensure a connection to nature and the exterior. The Virtual Care Center was carefully positioned to save existing, mature trees that provide natural shading to the building’s south and west exposures while also offering indoor/outdoor experiences for the building’s occupants. The exterior glazing undulates to create entry locations and balconies on upper floors, allowing the building occupants to easily step outside from their indoor workplace to access fresh air and views.

Rectangular 30,000 SF floor plates are designed to optimize flexibility and accommodate changing programs and technologies of the future. Each floor is strongly expressed as horizontal bands that represent the stability and strength of Mercy’s platform.

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Mercy Virtual brings together more than 480 physicians, nurses, specialists, researchers and support staff. Care is delivered 24/7 via audio, video, and data connections to locations across Mercy and around the country. The center is also a hub for telehealth research and training.

Landscape Architecture

Nestled among mature trees on 40 acres of woodland in Chesterfield, Missouri, the Mercy Virtual Care Center is the world’s first development of its kind – a healthcare and innovation center that delivers virtual medicine on a global scale.

The strategy for the campus landscape is rooted in sustainable site initiatives that reflect the ecological classification and primary plant communities of the eco-region. Areas that will be disrupted through the process of construction will be replaced with native woodland, prairie, savanna. An inter-planting strategy composed of multiple Missouri species, ranging in size, will be used to provide a natural developing aesthetic while creating the next generation of the canopy on the campus. This creation of a “working” and “living” landscape fosters an environment for healing, learning, and interaction that directly corresponds to the Mercy model of care.