In response to its transition from an Army Community Hospital to an Army Health Clinic, Fort Jackson faced a significant shift in medical service delivery. Inpatient services had been eliminated, leading to vacant operating rooms, an unused cafeteria, and dispersed departments across aging facilities. The central hospital—approaching fifty years old—had been renovated in patches over the decades, resulting in disjointed layouts and duplicated functions. To bring order to the system, the U.S. Army Health Facility Planning Agency engaged WestEast Design Group to lead the development of a comprehensive Facility Master Plan and Medical Area Development Plan. The charge was to assess 17medical buildings across the installation, identify opportunities for consolidation, and chart a strategic roadmap for future improvements.

To tackle the complexity of Fort Jackson’s healthcareinfrastructure—spanning over 475,000 square feet—WestEast led amultidisciplinary team of architects, engineers, and healthcare planners.Through interviews, surveys, and site visits, they worked directly with usergroups to uncover departmental needs and verify anomalies in staffing,workload, and encounter data. These findings informed a detailed HealthcareRequirements Analysis. Simultaneously, engineers assessed the condition of eachfacility, validating BUILDER index scores and prioritizing deficiencies. Thisdual-track approach allowed the team to develop phased planning scenariosaligned with projected growth and ongoing Sustainment, Restoration, andModernization (SRM) efforts. Throughout the process, WestEast adapted toevolving project parameters, including the removal of three facilities fromscope and the discovery of additional Post-owned buildings used by medicalpersonnel.

The final deliverable—a unified Facility Master Plan and Medical Area DevelopmentPlan—provided Fort Jackson with a clear vision for the next five to ten years.It outlined opportunities for renovation, consolidation, and cost-effectivemodernization, all supported by detailed cost estimates and an implementationstrategy. Through close collaboration and rigorous validation, WestEast delivered more than a plan; they offered a framework for smarter, moreefficient military healthcare delivery. Recognizing its clarity and value, theHealth Facility Planning Agency (HFPA) adopted WestEast’s plan as the standardtemplate for all future medical area and facility planning projects across theagency.