Effective surgical spaces can’t be achieved in a vacuum. “The most successful design solutions are those in which the users see their input in the final space,” says Scott Holmes, associate principal of medical planning at BWBR Architects. “Engaging key stakeholders, like surgeons, anesthesiologists, and nursing staff, early in the design process is essential to creating such ownership and creates the biggest opportunities for innovation.”
As a major source of revenue for healthcare systems, building adequate flexibility to accommodate multiple types of surgeries into today’s operating rooms is a big priority.
Moving away from small satellite locations, hospitals pharmacies are being built in centralized locations to better leverage clinical pharmacists’ expertise as part of the medical team, and to more efficiently fill, package, and deliver medication to patient units. Meanwhile, more complex medical inventories, regulations mandating strict handling procedures, and the need for tight stock control have raised the bar for risk management, essentially requiring pharmacies to create and apply well-vetted operational models for these critical spaces.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) rooms are some of the loudest spaces in healthcare facilities. Sound levels near the room boundary can reach 100 to 105 dBA, similar to the sound level near an ambulance siren.
Reducing the noise transmission to nearby spaces requires attention to airborne and structure-borne transmission paths.
The decentralized nursing operations and physical design model was introduced to inpatient units more than 10 years ago, with a number of expected positive outcomes for staff. Those include reduced nurse walking distances, more time at the bedside, less stress, improved productivity, and enhanced collaboration, among others. In essence, it was anticipated that the move would improve efficiency and safety, workplace condition, and care quality.
Healthcare projects are among the most complex in construction, with many stakeholders and external forces that can make it a challenge to ensure development progresses smoothly, on budget and on time. Adopting integrated project delivery (IPD), which joins major stakeholders in a mutual contract tying them to shared success, can be the answer to guaranteeing superior collaboration for both large and small hospitals.
When designing women’s and children’s facilities, we need to understand the challenge: creating a separate identity for distinct groups while maximizing operational efficiencies and collaboration.
In fact, we’re designing for three age groups: women (adults), children, and infants. In the world of women’s and children’s design, it’s key to create identities for and fulfill the necessities of each cohort group while developing a common working platform for all.
The Institute for Patient-Centered Design’s 2013 design competition set out to advance neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) environments, and results of the effort are still going strong.
I recently attended a meeting of the Built Environment Network (BEN), a group of senior-level facility executives from around the U.S. and Canada who are dedicated to improving safety, quality, and sustainability in healthcare. During the meeting, the conversation turned to the connection between the high-level strategic plan of a healthcare organization and its building or renovation programs and how, more often than not, these two are completely disconnected.
Designers have often relied on visualization tools to test and refine design ideas. Now with the rapid advancements in technology and software, these tools come with even more options.
Visualization tools include two basic categories: physical and virtual. Here are a few to consider:
Many former behavioral health patients remember a common experience: being transported to a treatment facility in handcuffs. Vulnerable, hurting, and desperately in need of healing, these patients received an unintended message that they were dangerous and criminal.
Various protocols and building configurations are in place at all stages of the treatment process both to maintain safety and minimize risk of harm, but patients are often caught in the tension between therapy and safety.
Maybe you’ve heard about the latest research scandal of a retracted paper in the journal Science. It was a fascinating study about changing minds, and I heard an interview with the study team on the radio show This American Life one Saturday while doing errands. As a researcher, it was one of those parking lot moments where you sit in the car because it’s just such an amazing story—and about research!
