As 2011 comes to a close, I have tried in vain to come up with a solid way of summarizing the year in terms of the healthcare design and construction industry. Especially as I look back at what I was saying at this time last year, I see an awful lot of similarities.
To quote from my December 2010 Editorial:
Leadership engagement and the integration of sustainability initiatives into day-to-day operations is something to celebrate. Healthcare sustainability changemakers serve as models of environmental leadership, sharing their vision for a healthier future and offering ideas on how to follow up ideas with action. Just one of those people is Leslie Davis, president of Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC in Pittsburgh, who offers her thoughts on the subject.
Two weeks ago, I posed a question to our blog readers here on Healthcare Building Ideas: Is design-bid-build going out of style?
The question was inspired by a new federal law for the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Science, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development that encouraged the use of design-build as opposed to the previously favored design-bid-build.
The design of healthcare facilities is an inherently complicated process involving interdisciplinary teamwork among healthcare administrators, planners, programmers, designers, clinicians, and patient representatives, and others who have different backgrounds and professional languages. Communication between stakeholders during the facility design process, especially while using evidence to inform design and creating evidence by empirically evaluating the built environment, becomes difficult due to a lack of common understanding of terms and measures.
The number of freestanding emergency departments in the United States has increased dramatically in the past decade, responding rapidly and efficiently to the increase in visits to emergency rooms. At nearly the same time, the number of hospital-based emergency rooms has dropped by 27% since 1990, according to a study published last spring in the Journal of the American Medical Association.1 Why are hospitals losing their emergency departments?
I sat it on an interesting session at the recent HEALTHCARE DESIGN.11 conference in Nashville.
You assess need and find that, indeed, there is one. You review and analyze financials, and consult with colleagues, subject matter experts, and close advisors. You take time to examine options, to compare and contrast pros and cons. And after such thoughtful consideration, after you’ve determined that all evidence points to a choice that is proven to be reliable—one that has a strong and measurable impact—you act.
Early this year, at the time of the third annual online survey of design research in healthcare settings, the economy was showing signs of a slow recovery. The Architecture Billings Index had been more positive, but architecture firms were expecting revenue gains of just more than 1% for the year (Baker, 2011).
Anniversaries invite review of the past and visions for the future. As HEALTHCARE DESIGN celebrates 10 years, it is interesting to look back—from a former emergency department nurse’s perspective—at how emergency departments have evolved and—now, from a healthcare advisor’s perspective—how lessons of the past and new research are optimizing staff performance and the patient experience.
What do you think is the best delivery method for construction projects? The question is one that’s likely to spur plenty of debate, with an answer dependent upon a number of variables. And now it looks like the federal government is adding its own two cents to the conversation.
If there’s one project that can showcase to what extent integrated project delivery (IPD) can be used on a healthcare construction site, it’s the massive expansion Palomar Pomerado Health is undergoing in Southern California.
Faced with a growing population and an Emergency Department already taxed to its limits, CoxHealth in Springfield, Missouri, knew that it desperately needed to expand its emergency services on its south campus. CoxHealth and the design team from The Beck Group set out to rethink the Emergency Department for maximum flexibility and efficiency.
