Lancaster, Calif., is located in the windy, high desert region of Antelope Valley, a fact that made the design and construction of the new Kaiser Permanente Antelope Valley Medical Offices a challenging undertaking—especially in light of the balance that had to be struck between the area’s extreme weather conditions and the provider’s goal to ultimately create a LEED Platinu
Virtual reality (VR) isn’t just for fun and (video) games anymore. It’s helping solve real-world problems in healthcare design and construction.
Sanford Fargo Medical Center in Fargo, N.D., turned to VR to experience its $500 million facility before it was built. The project team relied on VR to aid decision-making and design review for critical spaces and architectural elements, using approaches tailored to the participants and goals of each situation.
Transcending the traditional silos of medical research and healthcare delivery, translational medicine is continuing to emerge as a “best of both worlds” model, capitalizing on collaborative intellectual capital and translating it into better healthcare outcomes.
We’ve entered a new era in healthcare that’s making several institutions rethink how they operate, how they relate to their community, and how they can be most effective.
The Affordable Care Act brought a focus on prevention and wellness, which has become a new paradigm for healthcare providers. At the same time, concerns about HCAHPS scores, the continuum of care, and a governmental focus on population health is driving facilities to look at their campuses and communities with new eyes, shifting the way we think about master planning.
We all have milestones that mark major events in our lives and stay as clear in our memories as if they happened yesterday. For me, the sharpest memories seem to be tied to rites of passage. I still clearly remember every one of my graduations, from elementary through grad school; my bat mitzvah; my first night in the first home I bought; and the first time I walked through the door of my first professional job—a job I still have today.
Prebys Cardiovascular Institute opened on the campus of Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, Calif., in November 2014 and began admitting patients in March 2015.
The $456-million, seven-story facility features 108 inpatient beds in private rooms, 59 intensive care beds, six operating rooms including hybrid operating rooms, and three advanced technology cardiac catheterization labs with space to add three more.
Despite an existing commitment to contributing to medical research, Parkland Health & Hospital System was new to using design research and evidence-based design (EBD) on building projects. When it set out to replace Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, however, the internal Parkland team recognized the benefit of aligning the approach with its research roots.
The primary care community clinic is evolving with new technology, new care models, and new reimbursement standards. These changes are impacting the way patients choose to receive care and, in turn, the way we design clinics to offer increased patient choices.
For more than 20 years as a healthcare interior designer, I have observed, and in part helped shape, changes in the patient experience through informed design.
Recently in Spain, activists staged the world’s first holographic political demonstration to protest a newly passed law that fines protesters for convening outside government buildings. Photographs of the event showed thousands of holograms marching in front of the parliament in Madrid.
In an effort to enhance satisfaction related to access and timeliness of services, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs New Jersey Health Care System (VANJHCS) sought to renovate an outpatient pharmacy located at its East Orange, N.J., campus, which is used by 90 percent of the system’s enrolled veterans. The pharmacy had an outdated design from the 1950s, congested waiting area, and unfriendly user interface for staff and veterans, among other shortcomings.
Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates is one of the fastest growing cities in the world—and it’s where I made my second stop on my research tour of NICU design, as part of the Spencer de Mille Traveling Fellowship through the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) Northern Pacific Chapter Knowledge Advancement Fund.
It’s no secret that a well-designed built environment plays a critical role in keeping patients safe and enhancing the quality of care. Though there is a growing body of research that supports the role of design in health outcomes, oftentimes the research is very technical in nature and difficult for design practitioners to understand, interpret, and apply to their projects.
