by Jennifer Silvis | Oct 19, 2011 | News
The design of INCA—one of the largest healthcare projects in South America—has many chapters. While these chapters are complex, its lessons can be told in two simple statements: Simple solutions often are best revealed in the face of complex problems, and...
by Jennifer Silvis | Oct 19, 2011 | News
Editor’s note: In January 2009, the author joined a U.S. architectural firm at its offices in Doha, Qatar. Several months later, she was offered a position with the national healthcare system in Qatar, where her current position is the director of interiors and...
by Jennifer Silvis | Oct 17, 2011 | News
My experiences in Haiti began shortly after the earthquake in 2010. Available medical staff struggled to keep pace with the volume of casualties needing care. Much of the treatment came from volunteers, who often were poorly equipped.Because a large amount of the...
by Jennifer Silvis | Oct 17, 2011 | Trends
The donation of no-longer-needed equipment and supplies can appear as a win-win solution, but like other sustainability initiatives, a scratch on the surface may reveal a brown color underneath a green veneer. On a recent trip to Haiti, Bruce Compton, senior outreach...
by Jennifer Silvis | Oct 12, 2011 | News
As part of our Editorial team’s daily efforts to bring you relevant industry news (and to keep up to speed on topics we should be covering in print and online), there are a variety of news feeds we peruse and websites we check. One of my favorites saved to my...
by HCD Guest Author | Oct 11, 2011 | News
It is a thing of the past when companies could attract top talent by simply having an interesting advertisement and an informative "profile" section on their website. Top talent now has all the tools at their disposal to make a 360 assessment of your firm...
by Jennifer Silvis | Oct 11, 2011 | Trends
We all have those songs that pop into our heads for no apparent reason. Maybe they’re random and maybe they are a window into our souls—who is to say? The two that seem to show up in my head most often are David Soul’s “Don’t Give Up On Us” and Diana Ross’s theme from...
by Jennifer Silvis | Oct 11, 2011 | News
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” begins Charles Dickens’s “A Tale of Two Cities.” Now, two centuries later, that sentiment strikes a familiar chord with design firm leaders who see U.S. healthcare projects in a...
by HCD Guest Author | Oct 6, 2011 | News
Getting clients to fully understand two-dimensional architectural plans can be challenging. Getting consensus from administrators, physicians, and medical staff on design decisions can be even more difficult. Physical room mock-ups have shown to be an effective...
by Jennifer Silvis | Oct 6, 2011 | News
In 2008, Spectrum Health Systems of Grand Rapids, Michigan, noted an interesting finding in its staff satisfaction surveys: Employees were generally unhappy with the quality of their break rooms. To respond to this piece of information, the health system initiated...
