Mayo Clinic Expansion: Scaling Capacity and Technology Safely
PMI educational resources and a shared playbook for governance, risk management, and hybrid delivery enabled Mayo Clinic to expand its hospital and technology without compromising patient safety, experience, or privacy.
Mayo Clinic Expansion: Scaling Capacity and Technology Safely
PMI educational resources and a shared playbook for governance, risk management, and hybrid delivery enabled Mayo Clinic to expand its hospital and technology without compromising patient safety, experience, or privacy.
Summary
Mayo Clinic expanded its hospital by five floors while introducing:
- Advanced bedside technology
- AI-assisted capabilities
- Natural light and other aesthetics for a more healing environment
The stakes were high as patient safety, staff and patient experience, and electronic health records (EHR) fidelity were non-negotiable.
The project management team leveraged PMI’s educational resources and gained a shared playbook for governance, risk management, and hybrid delivery. This alignment enabled fast, safe decision-making and ensured the hospital opened on schedule, delivering patient-centered innovation with confidence.
Challenge
The Mayo Clinic needed to expand its Jacksonville, Florida medical facility with three new inpatient floors, a wellness floor, and a mechanical floor.
Alongside construction, the hospital planned to integrate the most cutting-edge technology.
Delivering these additions without disruption to care, overloading staff, or confusing patients and families, would be a challenge. Balancing construction milestones with complex technology deployment required careful coordination and posed both logistical and clinical risks.
PMI Partnership & Approach
Mayo Clinic, already a PMI Global Executive Council member, leveraged learnings from PMI to prepare for sensitive, high consequence delivery.
The training the project management lead focused on included:
- Hybrid agile waterfall methods
- Risk and decision frameworks
- AI in project management
Leveraging this training, the project management structure accommodated agile sprints for technology inside a waterfall construction timeline. They used common language for risk decisions to act quickly and safely, and they also implemented go or no-go decision point discussions that put patient safety ahead of date pressure.
Governance matched the stakes.
A dedicated committee and triad leadership reviews kept features aligned to clinical and operational goals. Bi-weekly status reports flowed to the CEO and CAO. Project managers increased the meeting cadence as go live approached to surface risks early and resolve them quickly.
How Mayo Clinic Delivered Success
Project Outcomes
Safe, Staggered Activation
Construction followed a waterfall schedule from inception of the program in 2022 through activation of the new floors in 2025.
Technology development moved in weekly and biweekly iterations allowing rapid learning loops and risk mitigation.
The team used a mockup room and pilots to gather input from patients, families, and staff. They defined MVPs and piloted features before scaling. A February “roadshow” helped the team showcase their work and demonstrate the solutions in action prior to opening.
Patient moves began at the end of April.
The team staggered activation at one unit per week for six weeks. This pacing allowed learning from each move and gave time to complete final preparations on the next units.
Critical Decision Points
Gaining Supportive Sponsors Early
The team had highly engaged sponsors who were invested at every stage of the process. Securing project approval and gaining executive alignment was a significant achievement for the team.
AI Safety or Clinical Burden
The team had to decide whether to enable all AI safety features on day one. Using risk scoring and alert fatigue thresholds, they chose a phased rollout by unit. They tracked outcomes and refined models between activations.
Staff Training Before Bedside Activation
The staff needed to prepare for using the new spaces and technology. Project managers used readiness checklists and implemented process dry runs.
Big Bang or Staggered Moves
A single move would have been fast but risky. The team modeled operational shock and patient risk. They chose a staggered schedule that preserved safety and smoothed activation.
Late Switch to Larger Integrated Displays
A last-minute change required new procurement and logistics. The team ran formal change control, engaged vendors, and expedited shipping. They finished installation before occupancy without compromising safety or patient experience.
Clinic Expansion Outcome
- Five new floors delivered – three inpatient floors, one wellness floor, and one mechanical floor.
- Inpatient hospital rooms equipped with technology integrated with electronic health records (EHR) to provide at-a-glance context for staff and families.
- Digital displays at the room entrance that draws live data from the electronic health record to share safety information for patients, care teams, and visitors.
- AI-assisted detection of falls, delirium, and pressure sores.
- Floor-to-ceiling windows with ambient lighting for a healing environment.
Mayo Clinic successfully opened five new hospital floors ahead of schedule, deploying technology across just over 100 beds without compromising patient safety.
Across the new units, the team scaled advanced solutions, including integrated digital displays and AI-assisted monitoring.
These upgrades not only improved the patient healing environment but also integrated with staff operations. Patients and families experienced tangible benefits, as patient-friendly language on displays enhanced care understanding. The project management structures helped ensure the successful activation of this new construction within the project’s constraints.
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