Anne DiNardo

My first lesson on the value of artwork in a healthcare setting occurred about nine years ago when I was walking the hallways of a maternity ward. It was the middle of the night, I was having regular contractions, but I wasn’t far enough along to be admitted to the hospital. So the nurse gave me the option to walk the hallways for a few hours or go home.

So off I went, walking and walking and walking, and that’s where my husband and I came across a pastel-colored image of a man with shoulder-length wavy blond hair and faded blue jeans holding hands with a child.

Completion date: July 2012

Owner: Ty Cobb Regional Medical Center

Architecture: Earl Architects LLC

Interior design: Maregatti Interiors

Contracting: MPA of Georgia

Engineering: Pruett, Ford & Associates

IT and telecommunications engineer: EDI, Ltd.

Construction: Freese Johnson Construction

Total building area: 155,000 sq. ft. (hospital); 35,000 sq. ft. (MOB)

Total construction cost: $37,159,656 (building); $2,969,514 (site)

Cost/sq.ft.: $239.72 (building); $19.16 (site)

Like other rural facilities across the county, Ty Cobb Healthcare System (Royston, Ga.) felt the pressures of providing rural healthcare in a modern age: rising costs, funding shortages, increasing competition, and a shrinking medical staff population.

This month, PBS released the documentary The Waiting Room, providing a 24-hour window into the ER waiting room at Highland Hospital in Oakland, Calif. “We’re a public hospital, we’re the safety net in society, the institution of last resort for so many people,” says one of the doctors during the film.

With the goal of delivering cancer care closer to the community, UMass Memorial Health Care (Worcester, Mass.) added a new cancer center at its Marlborough Hospital in central Massachusetts. UMass worked with architects from The S/L/A/M Collaborative (Glastonbury, Conn.) to build a facility  that would focus on the human experience of cancer care and provide a nurturing and healing environment.

With offices in three neighborhoods and a separate therapy/gymnasium space in another town, Pain and Rehabilitative Consultants Medical Group (PRCMG) wanted to consolidate all of its operations under one roof in Emeryville, Calif.

Some of healthcare design's most popular ideas—from acuity adaptable rooms to natural light-infused patient rooms and waiting areas—have benefits that touch patients and families, as well as the staff members delivering care. It’s a win-win situation.

Spire Healthcare, a private healthcare provider in the U.K., has invested $54 million (£35million) to turn a local landmark—No.2 Montefiore Road—into its 37th private hospital. Located in the seaside town of Brighton and Hove, the neo-classical building was constructed in the 1890s as a furniture depository for local department store Hanningtons and later converted to offices in the 1970s.

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.

Jeffrey Stouffer is a principal and academic and pediatric practice leader with HKS, Inc. (Dallas). Here, he shares his thoughts on Lean design and process improvement and how its potential savings makes it an important design philosophy

1. Lean is a philosophy for business and life (not a marketing gimmick)

As more and more hospitals and medical centers integrate themselves further into their communities, becoming a place for medical care as well as community meetings and wellness programs, space design is evolving to become more regionally focused. From materials palettes to curated art collections, these touches further break down the walls and create inviting places where patients can feel calm, cared for, and connected.

For patients receiving treatment at the Immanuel Medical Center Cancer Center in Omaha, Neb., their surroundings were given a facelift this summer when the hospital unveiled a new Inspiration Garden.

“We hope this garden will provide patients and families with peace, perspective, and promise amidst a difficult diagnosis and treatment regime," said Ann Schumacher, Immanuel Medical Center president and chief operating officer, in a release.

When Cleveland Clinic decided to add an ultra-high resolution 7T MRI scanner to its main campus in downtown Cleveland, it didn’t just have to figure out how to transport and install an 80,000-pound magnet. It first had to build the right facility to house such a powerful machine.