“Most studies indicate that employees spend 75-95 percent of their time doing things that increase costs and create no value for the customer,” says Amanda Mewborn, senior healthcare operational planner, Perkins+Will.
Anne DiNardo
Anne DiNardo's Latest Posts
Take Five With Bob McCleskey
In this series, Healthcare Design magazine asks leading healthcare design professionals, firms, and owners to tell us what’s got their attention and share some ideas on the subject.
Here, Bob McCleskey, CEO, Sellen Construction (Seattle), talks about construction trends in healthcare, how innovative techniques can help keep costs down, and what to expect in the future.
1. Prefab is not a fad
Materials Safety Check
There are countless factors to be considered in product selection to create warm, inviting, and comfortable healthcare spaces for patients and staff. Those concerns can range from ease of use to infection control to maintainability. But when designing for behavioral health settings, further consideration needs to be paid to durability and safety measures that aren’t required in most other healthcare settings.
Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital: Project Breakdown
Completion Date: April 2013
Owner: Partners HealthCare
Architecture and interior design: Perkins+Will
Total building area: 236,585 sq. ft., not including penthouse or parking garage
Cost/sq. ft.: $384
Construction: Walsh Brothers Inc
Back To Life At Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital is in the business of improving the quality of life for patients with disabilities and their families, through its patient care, teaching, and research programs.
High-Tech Vs. Passive: How To Choose The Right Design Solution For Your Healthcare Facility
Rehabilitation hospitals have traditionally recognized the therapeutic benefits of nature in the healing process, with facilities located on hilltops or scenic areas that provide views and access to the outdoors.
When Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital built a replacement hospital along the Boston waterfront, the urban site was challenged for space but not for inspiration, thanks to vast views of the harbor, Boston Logan International Airport, and the Boston skyline.
Design Ideas For The Medical Home Model
Once a dot on the healthcare landscape, the medical home model is a growing trend in healthcare design. During the session "Transitioning to a Medical Home Model Through Building and Organizational Re-Design," at the Healthcare Design Conference in Orlando this week, attendees got the chance to look at some of the design challenges and solutions associated with this emerging format.
"It's the organizations that can see around the corner that will not only survive but thrive in the future," Kris Krail, senior associate, NBBJ, said during her opening.
How Can We Design For Change?
Growing up in a family immersed in healthcare, Thomas Goetz says he made the conscious decision to follow a different path, becoming a journalist and serving as executive editor of Wired magazine for several years before his current stint as entrepreneur in residence at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
A few decades ago, he says he began to see how technology could help improve healthcare. “In the past, technology had always been an expensive burden in the healthcare environment,” he says. “We’re at a different moment right now.”
Paper To Electronic Medical Records: Tips For Designing Ergonomic Work Environments
There's been a growing adoption of electronic medical records in the past several years and today more than 44 percent of hospitals use electronic over paper medical records, says Jessica Ellison, principal consultant, NorCal operations manager, Environmental and Occupations Risk Management (EORM,San Jose, Calif.),
In the rush to accommodate this new way of gathering and recording medical data and patient information, designers and owners may also be creating unnecessary risks with quick-fix retrofits in patient rooms and nursing stations.
Take Five With Mark Herstein
In this series, Healthcare Design asks leading healthcare design professionals, firms, and owners to tell us what’s got their attention and to share some ideas on the subject.
Here, Mark Herstein, design manager at Tocci Building Companies (Woburn, Mass.), discusses the effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on healthcare design and constructing healthier facilities for the future.
1. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Kaiser Permanente Sets Green Goals at Westside Medical Center
Kaiser Permanente set an aggressive goal to reduce energy and water use at its new Westside Medical Center: goals that the new facility is already starting to meet just months after its opening, says Matthew Miller, project director, Kaiser Permanente.
Among those goal-achieving initiatives are a solar voltaic array on the roof of the eight-story parking structure that powers the garage and generates enough power to make it energy neutral (see image).
Art Plays Starring Role At Kaiser Permanente’s New Oregon Hospital
The importance of artwork in the healthcare environment and its role in the healing process has become more widely accepted over the years. But that still doesn’t mean it’s always part of early design discussions.
Rather, art programs are often addressed later on in the project schedule, maybe even after the drywall is up, leaving art consultants and interior designers to scramble to find appropriate pieces that fit on existing walls and ceilings.
