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.
Erica Steenstra has a 25-year career in interior design and was recently appointed director of environments for Taylor Design. Here, she shares her thoughts on the sharing economy and care delivery, minding staff work environments, and how medical respite programs can help reduce hospital readmissions.
The evolution of healthcare delivery has put providers on a pathway searching for the right mix of services, facility types, and building layouts that maximize care delivery, improve the patient experience, and drive the best returns.
Prior to groundbreaking on the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, the project went through nearly four years of design and master planning that would take it from an inpatient building to a comprehensive cancer center and fixture on The Ohio State University’s medical campus.
While the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute specializes in researching and treating a range of adult cancers, it also delivers radiation oncology services to pediatric patients who are served at the nearby Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
Project Summary
Completion date: December 2014
Owner: The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
Total building area: 1.1 million sq. ft. (new James); 100,000 square feet of renovations (existing James)
Total construction cost: $750 million
Architecture: HOK, Moody Nolan (associate architect)
Interior Design: HOK
Contracting: Turner Construction and Lend Lease
MEP engineer: Bard, Rao + Athanas, Prater Engineering Associates (associate MEP engineer)
Four years into planning the $750 million James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute—one of the largest cancer hospitals in the nation—The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center received news that it had won a $100 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Natural ventilation was common in healthcare facilities for a long time before mechanical systems became the standard. Now, with a growing focus on resiliency and the importance of connections to the outdoors, its re-emergence is gaining momentum, with facilities like Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital installing operable windows at its Boston facility.
This spring the White House and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services introduced the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit as part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, which is focused on expanding access to science-based information on climate change and the built environment.
After operating for more than 10 years, the Child Life Zone at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston was starting to show some wear and tear. “With thousands of patients and families using the space over the years, it was well loved,” says Mary E. Tietjens, child life manager at Texas Children’s Hospital.
The dated layout was also inefficient, with the 2,557-square-foot room divided into two sides (one for preteens, the other for teens), housing games for each and a small galley kitchen in the middle.
After touring the Park Nicollet Women’s Center in Minneapolis last week as part of the Healthcare Design Academy, I can understand why so many patients react with awe and confusion. It doesn’t feel like a clinic—a comment the staff has heard from more than one patient or family member walking off the elevators.
University of Florida Health Jacksonville (UF Health) opened in March 2015 to provide medical care to an underserved area in North Jacksonville, Fla. The $52 million, 210,000-square-foot facility was designed by Gresham, Smith and Partners (Nashville, Tenn.) and includes two hospital floors with imaging, surgery, support services, and a 28-bed emergency department (ED), as well as four floors of physician office space.
The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine on the University of Connecticut Health Center campus, in Farmington, Conn., facilitates the discovery of personalized treatments for cancer, diabetes, immunology, neurodegenerative disorders, and microbiology based on information derived from an individual’s genome.
