How a top US hospital boosted flexible working and cut real estate costs with Rendezvous

For one of the top hospital organizations in the US, the pandemic was not just a time of crisis, it was the start of an important journey – and today, the world-renowned Penn Medicine is seeing amazing results from a workplace transformation.

Real estate costs have been slashed, while the everyday working lives of around 45,000 administrative staff have been enhanced, driving up collaboration and encouraging wellness.

Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school. Their growing health system includes seven hospitals and numerous clinical practices across 27 counties of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Steve Smith of Penn Medicine has been describing how the organization took learning from remote working practices mandated by the pandemic, and is building on that insight with the help of one of the world’s most innovative digital workplace platforms.

Steve, Senior Project Manager – Real Estate, Design & Construction, says: “During the pandemic, our administration people were working from home, and we saw not only that the work was still getting done, but people were happier.”

When the return to work was being planned, the organization’s senior leadership saw real potential in doing things in a different way.

“Kudos to the senior leadership, who put us ahead of the curve from the beginning,” says Steve. “We saw that we were able to offer our people some flexibility in their working, and we also saw that this could give us the opportunity to look at the cost of our leased offices.”

“But what was vital was that we needed make sure that people can reserve the desks and rooms they need easily.”

Penn Medicine carried out a rigorous process to investigate leading room and desk booking systems and was impressed by the highly customizable Rendezvous Workspace platform designed and supplied internationally by NFS Technology.

“In our demonstration, Natalie Appleton from NFS showed us in about 60 seconds how to book a room using the mobile phone app,” says Steve.

“We were knocked out – and nothing else we saw came close. NFS had all the functionality we required, at a price that was better than, or on a par with, the others we considered.”

Penn Medicine committed to a 16-week proof of concept pilot with NFS to ensure that Workspace could meet their needs across two key sites – the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) and 1500 Market.

NFS Chief Revenue Officer Natalie says: “We were honoured to be working with this prestigious organization, with its incredible reputation for providing the best care available for its patients. Providing support to the admin team that underpins this invaluable work is a truly important undertaking.

“The scope of the initial project was large – 283 rooms and 200 desks/hoteling, with full integration to Active Directory, Outlook, Exchange and mobile apps.”

The team of expert NFS consultants worked hand in hand with Steve and his team before and during a highly successful pilot which has now been extended to full operations.

“It’s impossible to train 45,000 people individually, so NFS worked with us to provide written guides and hold group training sessions to explain why we were deploying the system and how to use it,” says Steve.

“We added some bookable space to the system first, and since then we’ve added a large number of workstations and offices – we’ve had a good uptake.”

One of the organization’s aims was to redefine its workspace and reduce its footprint – and with the help of Rendezvous, they have been spectacularly successful.

“This Summer will see the first step of dramatically reducing space from 300,000 sq ft to 125,000 sq ft,” Steve says.

A newly-renovated building will provide elegant shared conference room facilities that can be booked for meetings and flexible desks for employees visiting the office to collaborate, network and work on projects together.

“It means our people have flexibility in their work location, but also saves us money on real estate, which can be diverted instead to invest in our patient care and important medical research.”

Penn Medicine is now using the Rendezvous solution across their enterprise with the potential to further expand.

Natalie says: “It’s been great working with Steve and the Penn Medicine team, who are farsighted in their commitment to creating a healthy and productive working environment that serves the evolving requirements of their employees, their organization and – ultimately – their patients.

“They’ve embraced the possibilities of the digital workplace transformation with enthusiasm and a practical, highly professional approach that will continue to pay dividends for years to come.

“It’s a real success story, and NFS and Rendezvous are delighted to be part of the journey.”