Many strong chemicals are used in healthcare settings, for a variety of reasons: to treat patients (medications and anesthetic agents); to clean, disinfect, and sterilize surfaces and supplies (cleansers/disinfectants); and to kill insects and other pests...
The problems became obvious when the forms came off the 70-year-old public structure undergoing renovation. It was a beautiful, high-profile, art-deco-style structure made of cast-in-place concrete. But there were rock pockets, sand streaks, and form offsets marring...
One doesn't necessarily have to be a fan of NBC's Today Show to remember the tragic death from colon cancer of coanchor Katie Couric's husband Jay Monahan in 1998 and Couric's subsequent nationwide broadcast of her colonoscopy to heighten awareness of this test and...
For more than 20 years, the Minneapolis Heart Institute had grown as most hospitals do: by accretion, adding services and units in space as it became available about the hospital. So it wasn't surprising that, after years of this process, patient services that should...
Imagine checking into a four-star hotel. You arrive at your room for which you are paying $1,000 a night. You walk in. You discover you have a roommate. No one mentioned this when you were checking in. Odd. The next thing you notice is that your roommate is ill, right...
Images courtesy of Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, Inc. (HOK) In last month's article I summarized the basic models for inpatient room design, as determined by the toilet room location: midboard, inboard, and outboard. I also discussed how same-handed rooms, some with...
One of the fascinating aspects of healthcare design is how it intersects with technology. Not that architecture doesn't have to meet technological demands in other fields—nuclear power, industrial plants, even commercial shopping and office structures offer technical...
I spend a lot of time thinking about leadership. Most likely because my roots are firmly planted in the Jewish faith and early religious school teachings were often on the recurring twin themes of Tikun Olum (our personal responsibility to heal the world) and Tzadakah...
Thanks to the advancing age of the baby boomers, the need for healthcare facilities is continually growing. New hospitals are being constructed, and existing hospitals are being renovated and transformed into bigger and better facilities to accommodate the increased...
As enterprise-wide digital information and image management systems replace paper and film, many traditional medical departments are evolving into multidisciplinary and interdependent services. The traditional “ologies”—radiology, cardiology, oncology, anesthesiology...
Addressing the requirements of healthcare regulatory agencies is increasingly becoming a driving factor in healthcare interior design. In the past, key factors in interior design success encompassed meeting the expectations of the owner, the local community, the...
The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Ambulatory Clinical Building (ACB) is a new, 781,000-square-foot outpatient facility housing Gynecology, Genitourinary, and Breast Centers. It has been designed as a freestanding satellite to the remainder of the...
