Photo credit: © Perkins+Will, 2011
In this third installment of a three-part series on incorporating family into the patient room, authors Hannah Jefferies and Jennifer Merchant of Perkins+Will discuss how resource centers, consult rooms, and nurse stations, as well as the patient rooms, were impacted by the need to accomodate family at Rush University Medical Center.
Resource centers
Over the last couple blogs, I have looked at pediatric facilities to consider design choices that enhance outcomes for young patients. Pediatric patient rooms and units likewise warrant unique design direction to accommodate children’s medical and emotional needs.
I was talking with Dennis Vonasek, AIA, who directs our Pediatric Design Services at HGA. We have worked on several pediatric units over the years.
He pointed out some key features in today’s pediatric patient rooms:
If someone sat down with a group of parents and asked them what they most desired in a pediatrician's waiting area, the answers would vary, of course, and would probably leave the interviewer thinking, "Now wait a minute, that's a bit of a tall order. This is just a...
Photos courtesy of: CollinsWoerman
Photo credit: ©Perkins+Will, 2011; Figure 1. Exterior ground view rendering of Rush University Medical Center at the intersection of Harrison and Ashland streets in Chicago.
As I sit here looking at our child’s DVD collection, my eyes focus on the famous Disney title, "Beauty and the Beast." I have just found my way home from work, but my mind travels back to what waits for me in the morning. I ask myself a question: "Where is the beauty...
Infection control is one of the biggest hot topics in healthcare today. Much of this may be attributed to growing MRSA outbreaks in America and other nations. Infection control can be directly linked with patient safety and satisfaction. But where does the line...
Cultural anthropologists have been used by some of the leading industrial design firms to help study human behavior and produce more successful design solutions. They help decipher actions that consumers themselves are unaware they perform, while understanding those...
The patient room is where patients spend the majority of their hospital stay and where they have the opportunity to interact with multiple caregivers. It also is the place where the potential for errors is greatest. Therefore, the design of patient rooms should be...
Completion Date: December 2010
Owner: UPMC Hamot Medical Center
Architecture and Interior Design: Rectenwald Architects, Inc.
Hospital Planning: Gresham Smith and Partners
Structural Engineering: AES Engineering
MEP Engineering: CJL Engineering
Civil Engineering: Urban Engineering of Erie
Construction: Perry Construction Group, Inc.
Photography: Art Becker Photography
Total Building Area (sq.ft.): 137,650
In July 2010, my column “Best Practice, Next Practice” identified the drivers for innovation. In it, I noted that the best practices of today are steeped in baseline evidence, and the next practice resulting from innovation springs from that qualified baseline of knowledge, but has to be measured to earn its status as the next best practice. Research currently being conducted will measure some baseline design features and some innovative design features.
The small, and sometimes large, nuances of hospital design can and do play a significant role in helping to heal patients and increase the satisfaction of healthcare professionals. Design elements can have an enormous impact on patients and families, and now are a strategic element essential for the future of many healthcare organizations. Increasing efficiencies, reducing length of stays, and improving mortality and morbidity rates are imperative for healthcare organizations as evidence-based design elements are incorporated.
