The words “hospital expansion” conjure up images of spacious new buildings with lots of natural light, welcoming interiors, modern patient-centered amenities, and the latest in clinical technologies. The new multiple-award-winning Milgard Pavilion at the MultiCare Health System main campus in Tacoma, Washington, is no exception. Encompassing a new emergency department and cancer treatment center for radiation and infusion therapies, the pavilion boasts all these features and more.
During fiscal year 2010, the Veteran’s Health Administration (VHA) announced a request for proposals to support and facilitate the transformation of VHA into a culture of patient-centered care. VHA created the Office of Patient-Centered Care and Cultural Transformation that is directed by Dr. Tracy Williams Gaudet.
Affinity Health System visualizes its commitment as a wheel—with a promise of personalized care for all patients at the center. Everything it does involving construction and operations is achieved with the ultimate objective of bringing value to the patient. The Affinity promise is to provide personalized care by listening, treating people with respect, and putting patients’ needs and interests first.
Affinity’s three-pronged approach uses:
Since President Obama’s bill was introduced last year, health reform has been covered from every potential angle possible in the general media and healthcare trade media. While there is much agreement that we are in need of health reform, there is little agreement on what reform looks like, who will pay for it, and how and when it will come to fruition.
Healthcare today is changing at an unprecedented pace as institutions around the country grapple with economic difficulties, divisive politics, and a population that is sicker than ever. Record numbers of aging patients suffer from debilitating chronic disease, and epidemics of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes plague a younger-than-ever population. Healthcare executives struggle with these challenges, trying to fulfill their corporate mission while watching their bottom line.
For decades, residents of Johnson City, Tennessee, and its neighboring communities had been served by three hospitals that came to be an integral part of the local fabric, for both the patients who visited them and the staff members who worked there. However, Mountain States Health Alliance determined that two of them were too inefficient to maintain and opted to plan a new replacement hospital.
The health system challenged Karlsberger not only with the consolidation, but also with constructing a facility in the mountainous landscape that would achieve LEED certification.
By 11 a.m. here at the 2011 Architectural & Interior Design Showcase judging, being held at the International Interior Design Association offices in Chicago, our meeting room is a cacophony of sound.
It’s no secret that the baby boomers are aging, and the healthcare industry at-large is preparing for the onslaught as more and more treatments and health services are required for their care.
At the same time, healthcare reform is painting an increasingly more complicated picture for health systems, while now-private physicians are expected to begin a migration back toward being hospital-employed.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) serves as a model of healthcare for facilities and health systems nationwide. May 2-6, 2011, it is celebrating Research Week, and part of the event will take note of the accomplishments in care that VA research has provided to...
The Beryl Institute recently released its study The State of Patient Experience in American Hospitals, the purpose of which was to “gather information about what American hospitals are actually doing to improve the patient experience.” It yielded some interesting...
After attending several educational sessions last month at the ASHE PDC Summit in Tampa, Florida, it occurred to me that there was no escaping the “E-word”—efficiency.
Infection control never ceases to be a hot topic in the healthcare design industry, so when a recent development was briefly recapped during our local 7 o’clock news a few days ago, my ears perked in immediate interest, as I’m sure many of yours did, too. It turns out...
