Legacy ER in Allen, Texas, operates a hybrid program offering urgent care and 24/7 state-licensed emergency medicine services under one roof. The facility is an 8,432-square-foot building containing triage, exam rooms, urgent care rooms, emergency treatment rooms, x-ray services, CT scan, and a laboratory, along with administrative offices and clinical staff areas.
Surrey & Borders NHS Foundation Trust in the U.K. hosts a modest mental health inpatient population with a large community-based service. Because not all care can be provided effectively on a dispersed model, in 2010 the trust identified the need for a new long-term home that would provide 24-hour support for seven adults with Autistic Spectrum Disorder. Mental health design firm Medical Architecture was selected to develop the setting for the service.
This just in: Hospital elevator buttons carry more bacteria than toilet surfaces. Gross, yes. But it’s not really that surprising, is it? Like doorknobs, shared toys/books in waiting rooms, faucet handles, etc., it’s just another well-used surface that we all need to be aware of so we can protect ourselves accordingly.
The new 140,000-square-foot Hirair and Anna Hovnanian Emergency Care Center at Ocean Medical Center (OMC) in Brick, N.J., was designed by WHR Architects. The ED occupies the first floor of a new three-story hospital building that deploys the material palette of the existing campus—brick, precast, metal, and glass—to create a more contemporary aesthetic.
With its co-location with the “New Prescriptions for Transforming Healthcare” program from Healthcare Institute, an IFMA Alliance Partner, and the Corporate Realty, Design & Management Institute, our Healthcare Design Academy in Portland, Ore., offered a great range of perspectives on the issues facing healthcare design and construction today—all within a very short time frame.
The University of Queensland Center for Advanced Imaging (CAI; designed by John Wardle Architects and Wilson Architects, architects in association) was completed in 2013 and opened officially in June 2014. It sits at the edge of the University of Queensland’s St. Lucia campus, bordered by a remnant eucalypt forest that the university wanted to protect.
Move over, hospitality. As healthcare systems become more and more competitive for patients, there’s another sector with valuable lessons for both providers and architects/designers: retail.
For Coviello Oral Surgery, a 3,300-square-foot maxillofacial clinic in Falls Church, Va., Forma Design (Washington, D.C.) was tasked with creating a sophisticated adult vibe, centering design decisions on the patient experience.
In February 2014, Memorial Hermann The Woodlands opened the new Joint Center and The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research (TIRR) inpatient medical rehabilitation unit on levels 6 and 7 of the East Tower.
A lot of Australian healthcare projects have crossed my desk over the past year—some new, some still in progress—and the design Down Under has impressed me. What these projects have in common is an overall aesthetic that’s quite angular, sleek, and cool. I can’t decide if, as a patient, this would be off-putting to me in reality. Still, I’m drawn to the architecture.
The Woods Bagot-designed Nepean Mental Health Centre (NMHC) in Penrith, New South Wales, Australia, is a new insertion into the existing Nepean Hospital campus and is designed to respond to the increase in demand for mental health services as a result of the growing and aging population.
The Fleur Heights Care Center renovation in Des Moines, Iowa, is the first major remodel of a 10,000-square-foot portion of a nursing home originally built in the 1980s. The space was converted from an assisted living unit to a skilled nursing care unit. Though by code, the space is designed as a nursing home, the idea behind the renovation was to appeal to people of a range of ages in need of an extended rehabilitation experience.
