Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota recently opened its new 6,000-square-foot healing garden at its St. Paul campus. Designed by Aesthetics Inc. (San Diego), the Children’s Hospital Association (CHA) Storyland Garden provides a space of respite, activity, and socialization for patients, families, and visitors.
The infiltration of technology into all aspects of healthcare is irreversible—and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. From personal health-monitoring devices to electronic records to medical nanotechnology, there’s really no limit to the ways technology can potentially be applied to every facet of our well-being.
In 2010, the Grossman Medical Group (West Hills, Calif.) enlisted design firm Jamie Bush & Co. (Los Angeles) to help redesign its new corporate offices and an adjacent surgery center already under construction. Dr. Peter Grossman, CEO, and his immediate support staff envisioned a center that would be luxurious yet comforting to put patients and their families at ease during a difficult time.
In the early 1990s, James Childers attended the groundbreaking of the Redbird Smith Health Clinic in Sallisaw, Okla., five miles north of the little town where he lived. Redbird Smith was the first clinic built from the ground up by the Cherokee Nation and—Childers was surprised to see—it was a huge improvement over the typical Indian clinics he was used to.
As announced last week, the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED v4 rating system has been approved—at long last. It wasn’t a close vote, with 86 percent in favor, which must be a relief to the USGBC after three years and six public comment periods’ worth of work.
The OSF Richard L. Owens Hospice Home in Peoria, Ill., was designed to provide a home away from home and serve both the patient and family.The 23,000-square-foot, newly constructed facility opened in January 2013 and features 16 patient rooms, a chapel, and common spaces for patients, family and friends.
There are more than 11,000 acute care facilities in the U.S., and almost 35,000 additional medical-related buildings—all of which need to be assessed for how well they serve their functions, says Aran McCarthy, Francis Cauffman (Philadelphia).
You know all about the benefits of nature (whether experienced visually or up close and personal) on patient outcomes. It’s good for the staff, too, not to mention the neighborhood. But now, research is starting to take a closer look at what kind of nature promotes health and well-being the best. Is it smooth, golf-course-like expanses and meticulously arranged annuals? What about prairie-style vistas, with tall grasses waving in the breeze and wildflowers popping up (seemingly) at random?
The Dorothy Mangurian Comprehensive Women’s Center at Holy Cross HealthPlex (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) addresses a variety of medical, psychological, and social needs. Designed by Gresham, Smith and Partners, the 55,000-square-foot renovation, completed in three phases, aims to provide a multi-purpose resource for the nearby hospital and the community at large. Completed in February 2013, the women’s center was funded entirely by philanthropy.
The ribbon had barely been cut on a new fetal intervention suite when surgeon-in-chief Dr. Timothy Crombleholme scrubbed in to remove a life-threatening bronchogenic cyst from a baby before it was even fully born. With the fetus delivered only halfway (from the chest up) via c-section and anesthetized by a pediatric anesthesia team, Crombleholme removed the mass, put in a chest tube, intubated the baby, and—once the baby was stabilized—finished the delivery and cut the cord. More than 30 people were in the room, tending both mother and child.
With the launch of its new Prime TC wheelchair last week, the creative partnership of medical technology company Stryker and architect Michael Graves took the next step in Graves’ mission to improve healthcare design.
More than 10 years ago—before the Affordable Care Act, before reimbursement changes, before the tide really shifted toward more outpatient care—Palomar Medical Center (PMC; Escondido, Calif.) was in the works. As I wrote about last December, PMC started taking patients in August 2012, an impressive $1 billion project with myriad innovations.
