Anne DiNardo

The American Medical Association (AMA) made headlines this month during its House of Delegates Annual Meeting when it announced a new policy recognizing obesity as a disease.

Not every project comes with the opportunity to push boundaries. But that’s exactly what GBBN Architecture (Cincinnati) was given when it partnered with Mercy Fairfield on the fit out of a fifth floor shell space into an acute care unit. The intention was to have the floor match the layout and aesthetic of the existing fourth floor. “There were a lot of conditions that were already established,” says Michael Lied, senior project manager, principal, at GBBN. “We said what can we push and what can we change?”

I’ve attended Neocon several times in my 10-plus years covering design, but this was my first visit looking at the show through the eyes of healthcare. Walking away from this week’s event, three topics were clearly top of mind: senior living spaces, chemicals of concern, and hospital acquired infections (HAIs).

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, Frank Zilm, Chester Dean lecturer on healthcare design, University of Kansas School of Architecture, Design & Planning, poses some questions as he shares his five “mindfulness meditations on healthcare design.”

1. Is Lean a method or a religion? 

There’s been a growing discussion in our industry about chemicals of concern and the effects they have on health and the environment. The bad news is these chemicals, such as PVC, BPA, toxic heavy metals, and formaldehyde, are found in common building materials and products, and are associated with being carcinogenic and endocrine disruptors.

The facts cannot be overlooked:  Alzheimer’s is identified as the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S. and one out of three seniors is being diagnosed with the disease.

Nursing staff are on the frontline when it comes to witnessing the rise in obesity in the U.S.

A few years ago, employees at Cincinnati-based Mercy Health began to regularly see patients who weighed 450 pounds and more. In conjunction, injury rates and patient handling incidents began to grow.  

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, Jean Hansen, sustainable interiors manager, senior professional associate, HDR Architecture (San Francisco), talks about some of the regulations and standards on her mind that are influencing materials and products selection for healthcare settings.

1. Better product content disclosure

The topic of aging and long-term care is certain to stay on our radar screens as Baby Boomers grow older and the population in general lives longer into its golden years.

With that comes concern about dementia, which increases with age. In the U.S. alone, the cost of dementia is calculated at $157 billion to $215 billion annually—making the disease more costly than either heart disease or cancer, according to a recent study by RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization.

The 94,000-square-foot Stonebridge at Burlington opened in April and is the largest of The Northbridge Companies’ (Burlington, Mass.) assisted-living facilities. Designed by The Architectural Team Inc. (Chelsea, Mass.), the 110-living-unit community accommodates a spectrum of physical and mental levels of independence and acuity.

When news about rising obesity rates in the U.S. first started making headlines, many in the design field agree healthcare facilities weren’t quite prepared to deal with this emerging population group. For instance, existing hand rails and toilets weren’t designed to support obese patients or visitors, procedures weren’t in place to help caregivers safely deliver treatment, and accommodations fell short of making all patients feel comfortable within the hospital setting.

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, Mike Zambo, principal for healthcare design at Bostwick Design Partnership, collaborated with colleagues Robert Bostwick, Matt Bode, Judy McGlinchy, and Mala Yin to offer some perspective on bariatric design standards, patient rooms, and the importance of validation for evidence-based design.