Neighborhood Pride: Healthcare Projects Build Community Identity
Living in Cleveland, I can’t help but be proud to associate myself with a city at the forefront of healthcare delivery.
We don’t shy away from calling ourselves the “medical capital,” boasting hundreds of healthcare–related businesses, dozens of colleges and universities with medical programs, and hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers. We’re home to nationally recognized health systems like Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals, and next year we’ll include the Cleveland Medical Mart & Convention Center on that list.
For me, I love to watch as a new healthcare project unfolds alongside a highway or as an addition takes shape at a longstanding community facility. Then again, I work as an editor who covers healthcare design and construction—so, technically, I should be watching those things.
But despite the strong ties healthcare has to the identity of my own community, perhaps I’ve taken it for granted that others may feel the same way.
On a recent trip to San Diego to visit my brother, he asked me if I’d heard of what he dubbed “Palomar—The Hospital of the Future.” He was excited that we’d be driving past it one day so he could point it out to me (see my picture of the new Palomar Medical Center from a nearby parking lot).
My mom, who lives outside Orlando, also chimed in on the topic, wondering if I knew about her area’s new Nemours Children’s Hospital.
Of course these names and projects were very familiar to me (and you can expect to see feature articles coming soon on both Palomar and Nemours here at HEALTHCARE DESIGN), but I wasn’t quite expecting to be having these conversations outside of a work context.
In reality, though, few construction projects are going to be as big as a new hospital, and why shouldn’t there be excitement about that? Not only does it represent jobs and a boost to a local economy, but these facilities are, very simply, something to be proud of. They’re a new bright spot to any community’s landscape, providing modern, state-of-the-art, patient-centered care. And they touch everyone who enters them, as well as those who surround them.
So spread the news. Be sure to call your local news stations and newspapers to report your progress on a new building or renovation, and hold community open houses upon completion. Blog, tweet, create a Facebook page. Be a part of growing the excitement that’s naturally going to be there already.