HCD Guest Author

Offering refreshing solutions to projects’ specific design challenges, three of this year’s Healthcare Design Architectural and Interior Design Showcase submissions earned a Citation of Merit Honorable Mention.
 

Offering refreshing solutions to projects’ specific design challenges, three of this year’s Healthcare Design Architectural and Interior Design Showcase submissions earned a Citation of Merit Honorable Mention.
 

Offering refreshing solutions to projects’ specific design challenges, three of this year’s Healthcare Design Architectural and Interior Design Showcase submissions earned a Citation of Merit Honorable Mention.
 

Federally funded since 1965, community health centers (CHC) began as a grass-roots initiative to provide primary healthcare within a growing number of urban and rural poverty-stricken communities. Today, there are more than 1,200 CHCs in more than 9,000 facilities across the United States, each a nonprofit organization lead by a volunteer board of directors comprised of no less than 51 percent active patients, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration.

Sift through the pages of Healthcare Design’s Architectural and Interior Design Showcase (appearing in the September 2013 issue), to see what’s current in healthcare design. This juried section features healthcare projects from design firms that developed solutions driven by operational delivery models conceived five to even 10 years ago. Today, designers are challenged with an even more complex environment, answering to pressures like advancing technology, an evolving health policy, and expanding institutional consolidation.

If all goes according to plan, sometime next year, 30 million more Americans will have access to health insurance to pay for regular checkups and preventive care. The prospect of this greatly expanded customer base, along with a focus on wellness and incentives to deliver care more efficiently, has U.S.

I love my iPhone. I really do. But I don't think it's going to replace my physician. Or his office.

What's astounding, though, is that there are now more than 40,000 health apps that exist across multiple platforms. Many of these apps are simply things like calorie counters or workout logs, but about half of them are related to the healthcare profession, a disease state, or specialty.

With hundreds of projects coming through the door over the years, all hoping to be featured in this issue, there’s an obvious opportunity to observe and record the changing tide in design. Dan Miesle, MHA, EDAC, and administrative director for space planning and facility management at Stanford Hospitals and Clinics (Palo Alto, Calif.), is uniquely qualified to offer perspective on those shifts.

Private patient rooms have become the norm in newly constructed hospitals, largely due to the recommendation of the Facility Guidelines Institute (FGI), which is motivated by concerns about the spread of infections and patient privacy.

Limited by the inefficiencies of its existing facility, Owensboro Health Regional Hospital in Owensboro, Ky., came to a conclusion about its future: Delivering a higher quality of care meant starting over and rebuilding.

Completion date: March 2013

Owner: Owensboro Medical Health System

Architecture: HGA Architects and Engineers

Interior design: HGA Architects and Engineers

Construction Manager: Turner Universal

Engineering: Smith Seckman Reid, Inc.

Project Manager: KLMK Group

Photography: Mason/Halkin Photography

Total building area: 773,410 SF

Cost/sq. ft.: $371