John Kouletsis is the national director of strategy, planning, and design with Kaiser Permanente’s National Facilities Services (NFS) in Oakland, California. As the largest managed care organization in the United States, Kaiser Permanente (KP) has 8.8 million health plan members, 167,178 employees, 15,853 physicians, 37 medical centers, and more than 500 medical offices/outpatient buildings in nine U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
My husband and I recently purchased our first home, and throughout the process, right there by our side were our Realtors—both physically and electronically.
Every evening at dusk, a colorful glow gently settles over one of Omaha’s busiest intersections in front of Children’s Hospital & Medical Center. Passers-by can’t help but look up a small hill to the source of the light: the new Specialty Pediatric Center on the Children’s campus. What they discover is an artistic treat and engineering feat named “Imagine.”
There are a number of ways during the design process to explore making healthcare facilities more energy efficient. But when managing the environmental footprint of your facility, sometimes the furthest reach comes from thinking not only of the systems inside your walls but of the impact your facility has on the community in which it lies.
The end of each year often brings with it a number of analyses on how any particular industry performed. However, one recent report I thought I’d share with you instead projects what’s ahead for the New Year.
In recent years, military health facilities across the nation are increasingly embracing the concept of evidence-based design (EBD). Military hospitals are incorporating elements of EBD in new construction, expansions, and remodeling to ensure all military medicine beneficiaries receive a high quality of care, regardless of where they seek care.
As 2011 comes to a close, I’d like to thank all of our readers for your support over the past year. We’ve seen Healthcare Building Ideas grow as a publication, website, and brand—and I’m looking forward to a fruitful 2012.
When sitting down to write a holiday-inspired blog, I found that anything I might write couldn’t quite capture the essence of this season—and what our industry is capable of doing to celebrate it—better than a story from news station WITN in Greenville, North Carolina.
Now this is a way to kick the holidays into full gear.
As 2011 comes to a close, it seems fitting to take a look back at some of the hot topics of the past year. One that few can rival is clearly sustainability. When it comes to the operation and maintenance of healthcare facilities, this one tends to take the cake.
Do you have a decent sign system, but visitors are still getting lost? It may be time to develop a coordinated suite of “non-sign” wayfinding tools that addresses problems conventional signs cannot. Signs often proliferate when either staff or visitors are experiencing wayfinding problems and voicing complaints; these visitor outreach tools address the root causes and help keep sign clutter in check.
Resembling a children's museum much more than a pediatric hospital, the new University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital is a sight to behold. Outside, a color metal façade and color-changing LEDs attract the eye, while inside, a “Passport to Discovery” adventure beckons children on a journey throughout the themed floors and corridors to collect stamps on their passports.
EDAC has hit a momentous milestone, not only for the program but for the industry, as well. One thousand industry professionals, from all parts of our industry—interior designers, architects, physicians, nurses, healthcare executives, and product manufacturers, to name just a few—have successfully studied for and passed the exam, and are now EDAC certified.
The history
