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Why Now Is The Time To Right-Size Healthcare Projects
Over the last decade, we’ve been hearing a lot about the need to right-size our healthcare environments, and both hospital organizations and the healthcare design community have made attempts to do so with very mixed success.
However, this commitment to right-sizing has also been mixed, with the concept not yet embraced by all.
Right-sizing as a concept may be described in a number of ways, but the simple definition is: the process of defining and separating user group wants from user group needs in terms of the healthcare built environment.
Designing More Efficient Critical Access Hospitals
Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) provide essential medical services to rural communities that otherwise would have little or no access to care. They’re part of a special class of Medicare hospital that, according to a 1997 law, must be at least 35 miles from any other hospital (or 15 miles in mountainous terrain), have 25 or fewer beds, offer a maximum stay of 96 hours, and have a 24-hour emergency room.
How To Determine If An Inpatient-to-Outpatient Conversion Will Work
As we enter this new year of 2015, it seems so long ago that we were celebrating the new millennium in 2000. Of course, it’s only been 15 years according to the calendar, but in terms of the criteria and metrics associated with healthcare facility planning and design, a lot has changed since then.
We’ve experienced a dramatic transformation in all aspects of healthcare, including facility planning and design.
Renovating An Inpatient Unit One Room At A Time
Renovating an operational hospital is never an easy task. There are a number of challenges to tackle and elements to consider, including successfully maintaining daily operations, continuing to meet patient volume, minimizing downtime and interruptions to utilities, and managing an active infection control program.
And the process of taking patient rooms, in particular, offline for renovations can be even more difficult. The hospital must determine spare bed capacity as well as the duration of time rooms will be unavailable, and how to minimize effects on operations.
5 Ways Healthcare Design Must Change
Trends in the design of healthcare facilities are bringing us to the edge of a completely re-imagined environment of care. This new landscape is built on the foundations of evidence-based design and patient-centered care, but it’s a quantum leap from these somewhat tired objectives on their own.
With the adoption of healthcare reform, we can expect significant requirements for greater operational efficiencies and patient outcomes.
Access Control Systems Can Add Security and Improve Workflow In A Healthcare Setting
Extending the time caregivers can spend at the point-of-care results in better patient satisfaction and outcomes. But how do hospitals achieve that in today’s healthcare setting where security plays a critical role? Advances in technology and well-designed equipment can contribute to a healing environment by streamlining workflows.
In fact, a leading access control system manufacturer has launched a revolutionary solution for healthcare providers –—wall-mounted workstations with the advanced security of “Pure IP” access control technology.
Why Walmart Is Getting Healthcare Right
In the post-Affordable Care Act era, patients are becoming empowered consumers that have a much bigger say in how and where their healthcare dollars are being spent. In the new world of retail healthcare, providers such as Walmart are getting it right.
They have a better understanding of what patients really desire rather than what traditional healthcare providers want patients to want.
Assembling The Right Team To Create A Functional Program
Traditionally, the functional program has been developed by a group that is separate and distinct from the group that will ultimately be responsible for the design and implementation of a project. This segmented approach creates gaps and inconsistencies in what the program should address and what it does address.
What The Functional Program Is And Why It Matters
As a young student of architecture entering the workforce, you probably didn’t spend time thinking about what a functional program is or where it comes from. As a matter of fact, you may have thought it wasn’t any of your business, because it isn’t part of the basic services that an architect provides to a client.
A New Front Door: Upgrading the ED
With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the increased access it provides to health insurance for many previously uninsured people, it’s expected that patient volume in emergency departments (EDs) will continue to increase, driving the need for improved workflow and efficiency.
Likewise, the rising competition among providers to capture that patient volume is getting hotter. One of the key marketing strategies used by hospitals to attract new patients is to upgrade the experience, including in the ED.
Creating Healthcare Environments That Improve Health
At the 2014 Healthcare Design Conference in November, an American College of Healthcare Architects (ACHA) presentation by Dr. Richard Jackson of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health really resonated.
