Jennifer Silvis

The revolutionary concept of vertical integration that first allowed hospitals to stack the patient bed tower above the diagnostic and treatment base opened the door to a new paradigm of hospital organization.

For anyone who works on the design and construction of healthcare facilities, you know all too well the necessary evil of the many codes, standards, and other compliance issues that must be tackled throughout the process of not only building those facilities but in maintaining them across decades of use.

And in coming years we’ll see two major players change the scope of their guidance. First, though, it’s important that this community be informed on the updates being proposed and respond to them.

Back when I was a cub reporter right out of journalism school, I covered a lawsuit concerning the construction of a modular home. The lawsuit aside, today I look back and recall how interested I was in the concept of a modularly constructed home.

Inside it felt just like any other house I’d ever been in, except this one had come together through the assembly of prefabricated units that were built off-site instead of being built from the ground up.

A hospital’s mission is inextricably tied to the issue of sustainability. After all, without a sustainable operation, there is no hospital.

Sustainability goals usually refer to money saved, energy conserved, waste diverted, water recycled, or any other easily understood metric. But a clear connection between sustainability and a hospital’s mission, in an understandable language and with a factual basis, rarely occurs. 

I had the pleasure of heading to Chicago this week for the annual HEALTHCARE DESIGN magazine Architecture and Interior Design Showcase judging, where a panel of jurors from across industry segments was on hand to choose the best of the best among more than 100 project submissions.

The projects were narrowed down to a pool of 18 that were considered for the highest honor, the Citation of Merit.

We soon will mark the one-year anniversary of the tornado that rocked Joplin, Missouri, destroying one-third of the town as well as its hospital.

Increasing in intensity in the late afternoon of May 22, 2011, the storm—one of the deadliest in U.S. history— had grown into an EF-5 tornado by the time it reached the former St. John’s Medical Center around 5:30 p.m.

It took only moments to reduce the structure to a shadow of its former self.

The concept of evidence-based design (EBD) has been around for decades. Roger Ulrich’s 1984 landmark study “View through a Window” was a catalyst that ignited interest in evidence-based design and the belief that design interventions can foster better outcomes and changes in human behaviors and business performance.

The topic of sustainable, energy-efficient building is one that inherently goes hand-in-hand with healthcare, as organizations across the country battle to balance the inevitable contradiction that is at play on a daily basis inside their facilities.

That contradiction lies in the fact that their operation often results in the massive consumption of natural resources, use of chemicals, and creation of loads of waste—all of which can have a negative health impact on the general public, the same public hospitals strive to heal and keep healthy.