As patient, industry, and regulatory demands heat up, hospital administrators are juggling increasingly urgent priorities. What role does the built environment play in meeting these demands? For the Healthcare Design feature article “Facility Owners Share Top Concerns In Serving Patients, Staff,” I interviewed executives from hospitals around the country.
Stonehill & Taylor (New York) completed a 10,950-square-foot gut renovation of the Lawrence G. Kolb Research Building’s 3rd floor into a new laboratory for the Division of Molecular Therapeutics of the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Previously, Kolb 3 had been subdivided into smaller, enclosed labs; these labs were relocated prior to the start of construction.
The accommodation of technology in all its forms—whether it’s installing an 80,000-lb. magnet for a super-sophisticated MRI scanner, mapping out the infrastructure to support wireless communication initiatives, or building new data centers—is a constant challenge for healthcare facility owners. And it’s an expensive one, gobbling up capital resources, a trend that’s likely to continue for some time.
As patient, industry, and regulatory demands heat up, hospital administrators are juggling increasingly urgent priorities. What role does the built environment play in meeting these demands? For the Healthcare Design feature article “Facility Owners Share Top Concerns In Serving Patients, Staff,” I interviewed executives from hospitals around the country.
While architects and designers are trained to understand the ways in which the built environment can improve the user experience and patient outcomes, for healthcare facility owners, the physical space is just one part of a much bigger puzzle. This is why it’s so important to have an owner’s rep at the table from the get-go—so he or she can understand how a new project will help achieve the organization’s goals and give the facility design the proper attention (and capital) it deserves.
Maggie’s Centres are built on the grounds of cancer hospitals and designed to provide free informational, emotional, and social support to cancer patients.
Perkins+Will
Asked to design a modern cancer treatment center in an existing 8,025-square-foot space, one of the primary goals for Rachlin Architects (Culver City, Calif.) was to create a patient-focused facility. When visitors arrive at the UCLA Hematology and Oncology Center (opened in 2012) at in Pasadena, Calif., they are greeted by an entrance with Douglas fir ceilings and curved wall panels that ease transition into the facility and hint at the interior.
I’ve seen a lot of beautiful, intelligent, patient-focused wayfinding systems in new and renovated facilities. These hospitals incorporate color and symbolism, flooring and ceiling cues, and easily identifiable landmarks. When implemented thoughtfully, this kind of comprehensive approach is very effective not only for wayfinding, but also in creating a solid branding statement that can be adapted and expanded as necessary in the future.
But the single most important factor in any wayfinding system? Signage. It’s no contest.
James Shraiky
Assistant professor, director of healthcare design initiatives, Arizona State University
With the continued high rate of harm in hospitals, design professionals must be alert to assessing risk potential in their design projects. This case study article describes two examples of how risk assessments have been used in hospital design projects. Hospital A is a replacement critical access hospital with a total capacity of 25 beds accommodating medical/surgical, critical care, and obstetric patients. Hospital B is a rural integrated hospital and clinic with a phased replacement project with 50 beds.
Carolyn BaRoss, ASID, IIDA, LEED AP
Design principal, Perkins+Will (New York)
