The effort to promote and support population health and wellness has few rivals in its influence on healthcare today, inspiring the planning, design, and construction community to create environments that help providers deliver on that mission. The solutions being brought to the table vary widely, though, each in its own way answering the call. Healthcare Design asked industry members how wellness is being defined in their work—and they showed us.
Instead of reading 10 images for a patient diagnosis, radiologists today are faced with machines that are capable of outputting hundreds of images and a lot more detailed information than before, says Carlos Amato, healthcare principal at Cannon Design’s Los Angeles office.
Neighbors Health System (Pearland, Texas) had opened more than 20 freestanding emergency facilities in Texas and Colorado since 2008, with 10 more in the works, when it decided it was time to change its prototype.
Specifically, the regional emergency care operator wanted to rethink the traditional layout and operations of the ED to reduce the time patients wait to see a doctor. “The best way to do that is to put the doctor next to the front door,” says Dr. Setul Patel, president and CEO of Neighbors Health System.
Owner: Los Angeles County
Completion Date: July 2015
Total building area: 280,000 square feet
Total construction cost: $285 million
Cost/sq. ft.: $628
Architecture: HMC Architects (design and scoping architect), RBB Architects (architect of record)
Interior design: HMC Architects
Engineering: Saiful Bouquet
Construction: Hensel Phelps
Wallcoverings: Bacon Veneers, Acrovyn
Paint: Dunn Edwards, Frazee
Laminate: Wilsonart, Nevamar
Masonry wall: Tristone & Tile Inc.
Southeast General Hospital opened in South Los Angeles in the aftermath of the 1965 Watts Riots. For decades, the facility, which was renamed Martin Luther King Jr. – Harbor Hospital, was one of the few hospitals serving the community’s poorest residents. It had a big presence, too, housing more than 450 beds, an active trauma center, and a nearly 40-acre campus.
Not every patient approved for discharge is able to vacate the hospital bed immediately. Some might be waiting on a prescription to be sent from the hospital pharmacy while others might have to wait for a family member to pick them up.
Keeping these patients in beds for non-care-related reasons can contribute to backlogs in the admitting process and increase the time sick patients sit in the emergency department (ED) until moving upstairs.
In this series, Healthcare Design asks leading healthcare design professionals, firms, and owners to tell us what’s got their attention and share some ideas on the subject.
James Heroux is a landscape architect with Copley Wolff Design Group (Boston). Here, he shares his thoughts on how landscape design can positively impact cancer patients, their families, and care teams by helping reduce stress and providing places to recharge and reflect.
1. First connection
Cleveland Clinic has been working to standardize its design aesthetic over the years to create a unified identity for its facilities while improving patient care with an environment that helps to lessen stress and anxiety.
When the opportunity arose to expand its Brunswick Family Health Center (Brunswick, Ohio) with a full-service emergency department (ED), the provider decided to pull together its best practices in design, materials, finishes, and layout into the new setting.
Two years ago, HCA Healthcare Systems (Nashville, Tenn.) set out to expand its presence in northern Virginia with a new 124-bed, 234,000-square-foot hospital and medical office building. The facility would be located on a 51-acre greenfield campus in Dulles, Va., and mark the area’s first new hospital in 100 years.
Earlier this year as the World Health Organization was declaring that the countries hit hardest by Ebola—Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone—had zero reported cases for at least 42 days, another infectious disease was making daily headlines around the globe: Zika virus. At times like these, it’s easy for infectious disease control to be a hot topic among healthcare providers and designers.
Before Juliana Children’s Hospital opened in June 2015 as part of the new The Hague Hospital, Dutch firm MVSA Architects (a member of building consortium VolkerWesselsHaga) sought to enrich its architectural and interior design with a “finishing touch” that would create a positive distraction for young patients and their families.
Owner: Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
Completion date: Oct. 2, 2015
Total building area (sq. ft.): 645,834, plus 1,200-space garage
Total construction cost: $236 million
Cost/sq. ft.: $3940
Architecture: BDP Ltd.
Interior design: BDP Ltd.
Contracting: Laing O’Rourke
Engineering: Hoare Lea (MEP), WSP (structures)
Construction: Laing O’Rourke
Art/pictures: Lesley Greene (art consultant), Lucy Casson (lead artist)
AV equipment/electronics/software: BT
Carpet/flooring: Tarkett, Desso
