Vestibules are often an overlooked yet crucial aspect of hospital design. They’re a visitor’s introduction to a facility. When they’re well designed and work right, visitors barely notice them as they walk through. But when they don’t work right, everyone notices.
Clinical approaches to behavioral healthcare treatment have evolved over the past couple of decades. Although still challenged by a negative social stigma, substance addiction and mental illness today are more often viewed as manageable diseases than character flaws. As such, the design of treatment centers has evolved, too, to support new approaches to treatment and evolving social attitudes.
Controlled studies confirm that contact with the natural environment can alleviate stress, relax blood pressure, and even reduce the need for pain medication. So it isn’t surprising that many designers strive to organize outpatient cancer centers around natural vistas.
I’ve seen the future of healthcare facility design and it’s an office. That may be an exaggeration, but the increasing use of wireless technologies and computers by healthcare professionals to diagnose and treat patients requires that we create different types of spaces.
Spaces for people to communicate—as teams, in person, by video, email, texting, or the next latest and greatest technology that is yet to come down the pike.
When Kaiser Permanente decided to open a medical office building in Portland, Ore., one site in particular caught the health system’s eye. A former location of now-defunct consumer electronics retailer Circuit City, the one-story, 32,000-square-foot structure in the Gateway neighborhood of East Portland boasted a convenient location with easy access to public transportation.
In May, I had the opportunity to speak at the 14th China Hospital Construction Forum, which was held during the Hospital Build & Infrastructure China Exhibition & Congress in Nanjing, just a few hours outside of Shanghai.
Outfitted with a full complement of operating room (OR) equipment plus state-of-the-art imaging technology, hybrid operating rooms are allowing surgeons to diagnose and pinpoint problems while patients are on the table—and make immediate adjustments to a treatment plan based on what they see on-screen. And for cardiac patients with no other options for recovery than transaortic valve replacement (TAVR) surgery, hybrid ORs can provide the ideal space to perform the lifesaving procedure.
Hospitals across the country are creating a new breed of surgery spaces called hybrid operating rooms. Hybrid ORs combine the surgical capacity of traditional operating rooms with the imaging capabilities of a catheterization lab, two spaces that have traditionally been distinct. Placing state-of-the-art imaging and X-ray equipment in an operating room allows for less invasive, safer procedures with faster recovery times for patients. The imaging equipment helps surgeons pinpoint the area of incision and provides instantaneous feedback during procedures.
With healthcare facilities scrambling to improve their financial and performance position under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), there’s been renewed focus on falls as a preventable occurrence.
The terms “sustainability” and “green” naturally bring to mind thoughts of the products and features designed and built into a new or renovated facility and the practices followed during construction. But sustainability and sound environmental practices don’t end when the final item is crossed off the contractor’s punch list. The third—and equally important—element of the equation is how the building is maintained and operated throughout its years of use.
Project category: Remodel/Renovation (completed November 2012)
Chief administrator: John Chuey, MD, Senior Physician, (212) 420-2000
Firm: Array Architects, (212) 689-3110
Design team: Jeffrey Drucker, AIA, Project Executive; Jason Lee, LEED AP, Project Manager; Patricia Malick, AAHID, EDAC, LGB, Lead Interior Designer; Michelle DeForrest, LEED AP, Interior Designer; Udo Maron, AIA, ACHA, Healthcare Planner (Array Architects); Rick Meilen, PE, MEP Engineer (Kellen & Lemelson)
Feeling the impact of healthcare reform and the recession, many hospital owners are faced with the difficult task of driving down costs, which can include choosing between building new facilities or renovating existing ones. Requiring large capital expenditures and longer timelines, the design and construction of new hospitals isn’t always a viable solution. Consequently,the decision to retrofit and update existing facilities has become more popular, because it allows hospital owners to meet changing needs and increasing demand with a smaller price tag and shorter schedule.
