EarthSafe Chemical Alternatives®, a foremost provider of infection prevention solutions, introduces EvaClean® disposable environmental surface wipes for use with PUR•ONE®, a safer multi-purpose cleaner and disinfectant powerful enough to kill biofilm bacteria, Covid-19 and other emerging pathogens
Of the many effects of the pandemic, one is a renewed focus on speed to market for many healthcare projects. Whether it has been paused, stalled, derailed, or reviving, there is an emphasis on bringing back the right projects: projects that will help recapture revenue lost during the pandemic, address priority infrastructure issues that were put on hold, or get ahead of any anticipated slowdowns in public funding that infrastructure projects rely on. Healthcare executives that move fast and hard on productivity and make bold moves to prepare for the future will come out ahead.
With technology advancing, it opens a multitude of different opportunities and possibilities in the world of construction. For the first time, Northwestern Medicine and Walsh Construction teamed up to put a new practice to use: prefabricated modular exam rooms. Prefabricated (Prefab) modular exam rooms are preconstructed pods that are finished prior to installation. The final pods will have everything installed except for a few ceiling tiles, and flooring.
JLL conducted a national patient survey of US adults that had in-person medical care from July 1, 2020 to October 12, 2020 to uncover a post-pandemic view into healthcare consumer behavior and how real estate and facilities impact the patient experience. What are healthcare consumer preferences in the age of COVID-19 and beyond? From convenience to access, wayfinding to cleanliness, this report outlines the following key storylines and considerations for healthcare leaders.
When I graduated college, I knew I wanted to be an engineer. While it was something I was interested in since childhood, realizing that dream was just the beginning of learning what it meant to actually be an engineer in the professional world.
We miss seeing you in person and are optimistic we can all gather again this year. Our team is closely monitoring the vaccine rollout, travel rules, and state and local government regulations for holding indoor events in 2021. Based on this holistic perspective, and given that the summer months remain unpredictable, we have decided to take advantage of an opportunity to move the Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo later in the year from September 21-23 to December 6-8, 2021, remaining in Austin, Texas.
Grace Hebert Curtis Architects' design for Ochsner Health System reimagines healthcare and the spaces in which it is delivered.
Change is inevitable, and a significant part of the human experience. Prosperity and adversity alike have allowed our world to grow and advance new ideas, technologies, and cultures. Whether welcoming a new addition to your family, implementing a software upgrade, or planning the construction of a new healthcare facility, a sound change management strategy should be intertwined into your overall plan for change.
Shortages and supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 crisis have caused many healthcare institutions to conclude that the safest, smartest way to ensure readiness is to acquire and store their own personal protective equipment and other supplies. At the same time, facilities need to ramp up cold storage capacity for COVID testing and the incoming influx of vaccines.
Eight-thousand, nine-hundred and seventy-two; that is how many nickels I would have if I received a nickel from every manager that ever said, “I shouldn’t have to…â€
Vital Innovations for Healthcare Facility Floor Installation Flooring plays a critical yet often overlooked role in the daily activity of today's busy healthcare organizations. Hospital floors must stand up to years of continuous traffic, including heavy loads, such as gurneys carrying patients and equipment. In addition to durability, maintenance is important in healthcare design. Healthcare flooring must protect against the growth of mold and bacteria as well as withstand frequent cleaning with chemical agents, as this helps prevent infection.
Since the early days of modern medicine, the relationship between healthcare and hospitality has been closely intertwined. After all, the root of the word hospital is the Latin noun hospes, meaning "guest or visitor"; and the word hospitality shares this root noun, too. Yet, the similarities between healthcare and hospitality extend way beyond word origins.
Parking structures are often both the first and last impression of your property that a visitor has. The upkeep of parking structures at healthcare facilities, where accessibility and comfort are of great importance, is even more critical. These frequently used structures are exposed to the environment and often neglected, resulting in dripping ceilings, rusted steel, and pot-holed drive aisles. Keeping an aging garage maintained can be a challenge. Garages require periodic structural repairs and regular maintenance beyond that of buildings of a similar age. If maintenance falls behind or the structure is showing signs of needed repair, it may be time to consider structural repairs as part of a garage restoration project.
What if appropriate design could help improve behavioral and mental health treatment and outcomes? Spoiler alert: The right design can, and already does, in facilities that have made the right investments and design choices. Recent studies have shown that excessive noise and lack of privacy can cause undue stress in behavioral health patients, while beneficial elements like natural daylight, suicide-resistant building materials, and good sightlines can dramatically improve health outcomes.
With just over a minute left to the game, and being down by two points, Coach Radcliff did the unthinkable; he pulled the goalie. Pulling the goalie in hockey allows you to swap out the goal tender for another player; which increases your team’s chances of scoring. There is an obvious downside however. Pulling the goalie means you are intentionally leaving your net unguarded and therefore vulnerable. But hockey coaches, being down by a point or two in the last 60 to 90 seconds of an important game – often see more value in taking the risk, than not.
I spend much of my life thinking about hospital design. And these days, with the outbreak of novel coronavirus (COVID-19), I'm sure many people around the world are looking at their hospitals in new ways, as patients and staff try to stay healthy. COVID-19, declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), has brought hospital design and infection control to the forefront.
From waiting rooms to meeting rooms and patient wards to open offices, thoughtful ventilation design is a key part of keeping people safe in shared spaces. The type of ventilation system in these spaces plays an important role in preventing the transmission of COVID-19 and other pathogens that are transmitted through respiratory droplets.
When health systems expand, support services often need to grow to support increased volumes. A common example of this is the expansion of Central Sterile Processing Departments (CPSD) following the opening of additional operating rooms. Array recently led a project to meet this need for Mount Sinai West Hospital in NYC. In this design feature, we’ll explore how an understanding of departmental workflow, multidisciplinary collaboration, and clever interior design elements can help you zero in on the most essential aspects of CSPD design.
The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing many industries and businesses to adapt and pivot in order to navigate the new normal. Construction is no different during these times, especially those specializing in the building of healthcare facilities. As an essential business, those providing construction services to the healthcare industry found themselves on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19. So how does one build, stay safe and adapt during a health pandemic? The answer: careful planning, collaboration, intense safety measures and dedication.
Proper daylighting is a fundamental component in all great buildings. It offers a window to the exterior, increases occupant productivity, and, if done properly, reduces building energy and operational costs. Studies have shown that healthcare occupancies benefit from great daylighting through decreased lengths of patient stays and more productive staff. These benefits have resulted in recommended requirements for daylighting in various patient areas by the FGI Guidelines for Design and Construction.
Sound Control is extremely important for confidentiality in clinics. Any audible transmission between exam rooms is a major HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) violation. Thus, special care is required to eliminate sound from migrating between spaces. The following are considerations to control sound within the clinic:
When I graduated college, I knew I wanted to be an engineer. While it was something I was interested in since childhood, realizing that dream was just the beginning of learning what it meant to actually be an engineer in the professional world.
How can space support people's safety? As millions of people around the world begin reentering spaces outside the safe confines of their homes, we have to think critically about necessary and desired behavior and interactions. What will bring them back to the built environment? How can the environment create an experience worth the risk of uncertainty?
The recent COVID-19 crisis has altered the way healthcare construction will be considered moving forward. New and renovation projects, big and small will need to incorporate future 'patient surge' as an essential part of the planning and final build.
In the 68 years of my life, I have seen and experienced some amazing happenings - but, I have never lived through such an intense period of disruptive change as these first 6 months of 2020 have been. Of course, notwithstanding the human suffering and the tragic impact this period will have upon the future of humankind, a most unfortunate consequence of this period of change is the need to cancel the 2020 Symposium.
It is with deep sadness and heavy hearts that we announce the 33rd annual Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo scheduled for September 22-24, 2020 in Long Beach, CA will not take place. This is the first time in 33 years the Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo community will not gather in the fall this is a decision we have not taken lightly.
The Texas Center for Infectious Disease (TCID), the last specialty tuberculosis (TB) hospital left in the nation, has been receiving worldwide attention these days. Staff currently use elastomeric masks as part of its PPE when treating and caring for TB patients. Back in February TCID was part of the operation which helped house patients from multiple cruise ships that landed in San Antonio for care.
In a crisis, it is heartening to be reminded that it just takes a few individuals looking at things in a slightly different way to find helpful solutions hiding in plain sight.
Writings from a doctor working in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES), a neighborhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The area, one of the city's oldest, is the site of a complex set of social issues including extremely high levels of drug use, homelessness, poverty, crime, mental illness, and prostitution. It is also known for its strong community resilience and history of social activism.
On March 17th, the first full day of HGA's firmwide "Work from Home" directive, Kurt Spiering (healthcare sector leader at HGA) received a phone call from Ben Bruns, executive vice president for northern operations of The Boldt Company. He was asking if we would combine our talents and experience with modular and prefabricated construction to respond with facility solutions to the emerging healthcare crisis.
The 2019 Symposium Distinction Award Winners, sponsored by Medical Construction & Design, were honored at the annual Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.
Healthcare facilities are losing control over the multitude of chemicals in their housekeeping closets and central storage areas. On any given day, there may be as many as seven different chemicals for different purposes, each with a unique set of instructions
The National Organization for Arts in Health is proud to announce the following recipients of our inaugural International Arts in Health Awards Program, titled "The Hamilton" so named after the sponsoring Hamilton Saykaly Garbulinska Foundation at Blue Grass Community Foundation
News media, trade journals and white papers are filled with dire stories of capital projects that did not meet schedule, budget and/or scope targets. In short, those projects failed. At the same time, productivity in the construction industry has decreased over the last 50 years - not improved - despite major technology advances.
We're getting ready for September 2019, when the National Organization for Arts in Health will present its third annual national conference supporting the field of arts in health.
We’ve all experienced that “ah hah” moment… It’s the moment when you recognize something could be better, and you yearn for the opportunity to make it better.
For patients and clinicians, it’s often when they are in a hospital care space – the expectant mother in the middle of labor wishing she wasn’t staring at painfully slow-moving clock on the wall; the nurse wishing he could have eyes on all his patients at the same time; the ER clinician thinking “only if the experience at the front end of the ED was more streamlined, I could have more healthy conversations with mid-acuity patients in the ER…” The list continues.
If you ever have the delight of visiting the Midland Hotel in Manchester, England, just as you enter the building, you will encounter a substantial commemorative plaque with a lifesize bust of Mr. Rolls and Mr. Royce. The plaque explains that, 'on 4 May 1904, Mr. Rolls first met Mr. Royce at the Midland Hotel for lunch, and the rest is history'. Of course, no one needs the history of what happened as a result of this meeting to be explained. This historical note is extremely relevant in terms of the Symposium.
Residential doormats have traditionally greeted visitors into our homes with a warm and familiar ‘welcome’. The Cambridge English Dictionary definition of ‘welcome’ is: ‘to meet and speak to someone in a friendly way when they arrive’. As the founder of the Symposium, and its Special Advisor, I extend to you my most sincere and heartfelt ‘welcome’ for you to attend this year’s program.
Healthcare construction, renovation or expansion projects pose a unique challenge for interior design professionals. Rather than focusing solely on what looks the best, they must prioritize design elements that advance a healthcare facility's core mission: Delivery of quality care. Here's what that looks like.
The Generative Space Award recognizes break-through designs that improve health and healthcare. Submit your recent projects that clearly demonstrate the integration of the physical and social environments to make your community A Place to Flourish®.
When you hear the phrase innovative healthcare facility, what image comes to mind? A large urban campus with the latest high-tech equipment? A research-focused academic medical center fostering the next medical breakthrough? While there is no question that such facilities are the sites of many healthcare advancements, we have found that rural facilities can also be fertile ground for innovative, industry-leading ideas.
The 2018 Symposium Distinction Award Winners were honored at the annual Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo at the Austin Convention. The Awards program recognizes design teams, projects and individuals who have made a profound contribution to the healthcare design industry. The program accepts submissions of all types and sizes of patient care-related facilities. In addition it recognizes the best and most innovative new products within the healthcare design & construction industry.
In Austin, at this years Symposium I will be conducting an innovative leadership learning intensive. It is specifically for senior level executives all health, healthcare, and design industry stakeholders who want to dramatically improve the world of health and healthcare by advancing their leadership effectiveness.
Within the framework of an entire facilities project, success is often measured by the client in terms of budget, schedule, and quality--both functional and aesthetic. It is often said that owners can have it Fast, Good, or Cheap, and they can only pick two. However, facilities projects exist within a larger institutional context and the trade-offs that frequently occur among these success measures can have implications well beyond the project. The facilities project is not the end. Rather, it is a means to an end that serves an institutions larger strategic plan. This often-distant strategic purpose can easily be lost in the immediacy of a projects Fast-Good-Cheap design and construction decision-making
Cancer diagnosis is often a life-changing moment for any patient. Procedures and treatments with multiple specialists can be intimidating and confusingfor both the patient and family members. As clinical procedures continue to improve, many healthcare organizations are increasingly emphasizing an overlooked but equally important aspect of cancer carethe patients emotional wellbeing.
Nearly 200 years ago, Catherine McAuley and the Sisters of Mercy pioneered a revolutionary new approach to caring for others. Rather than expecting people to come to them, they traveled outside the confines of their convent to deliver care to those with the greatest need.
Over the course of my career as both a hospital executive and a planning and design consultant, I have been drawn to the notion of empathy. Three particular experiences have profoundly influenced my personal construct of empathy.
Thirty-two years ago, when I first conceived of a Healthcare Design Symposium, my concept was unprecedented: a multi-stakeholder community passionate about learning and sharing resources to create more life-enhancing environments to improve health. By all accounts, and given its 30-year history, the response to this concept was extremely positive and as a result the healthcare environment, today, is VERY DIFFERENT than it was then
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This article breaks down and explains the seven topics that LEED for Healthcare focuses on while giving insight into what a facility must do to receive certification.
NOAH will hold its first annual conference in conjunction with the 30th Healthcare Facilities Symposium and Expo on September 18 21, 2017, in Austin, Texas.
Whether youre getting seniors to treatments and appointments or taking them on outings and shopping trips, reliable senior transportation is a core part of providing senior living services. Thats true for independent living centers, assisted living facilities, nursing homes and adult day centers alike
Today more than ever, forward thinking healthcare systems are reimagining their facilities with an eye toward enhancing the patient experience and improving outcomes. Healthcare design in general and Emergency Department (ED) design in particular are being shaped by a more discerning public who are expecting to be placed in a supportive environment which offers them much more control of their experience. Greater individual privacy, fewer disruptions, and quicker responses create a better clinical environment for patients under circumstances that by definition are not conducive to doing so.
Noise and Healing Although everyones perception of what constitutes noise is different, most patients would agree that hospitals are and have always been noisy places. While the World Health Organization recommends that average patient room noise levels remain around 30 decibels, typical noise levels often hover as much as 20-30 decibels above that level.
From cleanliness and accessibility to heavy wear, wayfinding and promoting a healing environment, hospitals face a unique, stringent set of challenges. The flooring is no exception. Its a crucial part of creating a quality care setting. Below, we discuss various factors to consider when choosing flooring for your healthcare facility and how to incorporate evidence-based design into a hospital flooring plan.
Every healthcare and research institution wants a flexible clinical laboratory that blends innovative technologies with LEAN principles, increasing the efficiency and quality of the work. The ideal core lab promotes collaboration and the exchange of knowledge, and is flexible and easily modified...
What first brought you to the Symposium? There are almost as many different answers to this question as there are stars in the cosmos. However, some of the more frequently heard responses to this question, are: To find out new (where the filling in of the dots could be trends, ideas, products or industry leaders for example).
Four Healthcare Accelerators Changing the Game
Over the past few months I've met with a variety of Facilities Managers across multiple sectors in the UK, each meeting has unearthed a different approach to performing and managing their daily workloads...
Hospitals used to love it when you came and stayed for days on end. But now with recent insurance and accountability changes, they are facing significant fines for re-admission (and the resulting public perception of poor care). They want you in and out.
Consider this: Are you the product of a world that has taught you to eat all your dinner first, then and only then you can have your dessert?
Anchor Health Properties is celebrating 30 years in 2015! We sat down with Paula Crowley, CEO and Lou Sachs, President, for a Q&A to reflect on the last 30 years as they transitioned from retail to healthcare development.
Millennials are the new moms. Time is flying, and in a few years all new mothers will be Millennials (or Gen Y). This generation is information-centric, so with limitless access to information many mothers-to-be obsess over every detail of impending motherhood, including finding the perfect place to give birth. About 99% of women in the U.S. currently give birth in hospitals, but the number opting to deliver at home or in birth centers is rapidly increasing in reaction to negative experiences, high rates of unnecessary medical interventions, lack of control, and high costs of delivering in a hospital.
Nursing is the fastest growing occupation in the United States, with an anticipated 22 percent increase in the number of nursing jobs by 2018. It makes sense, then, that designers, facility managers and healthcare administrators are paying more attention to creating environments that support this portion of the workforce, looking at everything from lighting and furnishings to the floors beneath them. One flooring product in particular - rubber - is earning high marks, not only for the comfort it offers, but also for a number of other benefits that enhance the work environment in healthcare settings. This article will discuss those benefits of rubber flooring for the healthcare environment.
In December 2014, the Huffington Post UK posted an article and accompanying cartoon which satirizes our society's prevailing misunderstanding of mental health, which is the trivialization and dismissal of such suffering. From our choice descriptors to our "helpful" advice, we are usually way off target in eradicating the stigma of mental health. As our government attacks the stigma - by expanding access and insurance coverage, providing job training incentives, and integrating the services into the primary care world - the next big opportunity to improve care delivery lies within designers' hands.
With a growing emphasis on wellness and preventive care--and increased pressures to monitor overall community health--community engagement has taken on renewed importance in healthcare delivery. Through a well-planned community engagement process, healthcare organizations can better understand and address their community's health needs, obtain specific feedback to improve current care programs and facilities, and solidify relationships with their patients and the broader community. While community engagement initiatives can occur at any time and may take a variety of forms, tying such initiatives to facility development offers unique opportunities to rethink existing processes and align investments with community expectations.
After the EF-5 tornado of May 22, 2011 landed a direct hit on the St. John's Regional Medical Center in Joplin Missouri, Sisters of Mercy Health Systems determined to re-build, on a new site, a new facility, to replace the one devastated by the tornado. Groundbreaking for the 260 bed facility took place in January of 2012. The new hospital will open for patients in the first quarter of 2015. With the lessons learned from the devastating storm experience, Sisters of Mercy Health Systems and its design and construction teams gathered together to begin planning the new design.
Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare All Saints Hospital in Racine, Wisconsin is a 313 inpatient bed multi-building hospital campus that includes the Cardiovascular Institute, St. Lukes Womens and Childrens Health Pavilion, and St. Marys Hospital. The Central Sterile Processing (CSP) department supports these facilities and the physician office building located on the campus.
For the second year in a row, the Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo played host to students from around the country, and provided a most appropriate venue for the required comprehensive task. Five teams were invited to be a part of a Student Design Charette which focused on two topics trending high during this year's HFSE: 1) Generative Space and 2) Retail Health. A student design charrette was the catalyst to bring all interested and enlightened individuals together with a common goal of conceptualizing generative space.
The rollout of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is presenting a number of new challenges to healthcare providers and facility operators. One of the largest of these new challenges is keeping a facility continuously accredited by The Joint Commission (TJC) (formerly JCAHO). States rely on TJC accreditation and certification programs to oversee the quality of the healthcare facilities and programs. Additionally, various state agencies utilize TJC accreditation as a condition for Medicare payments. Specifically, the State of Illinois recognizes TJC accreditation as a condition of licensure and the receipt of Medicare and Medicaid service reimbursements. As such, continuous accreditation becomes even more critical in the present ACA environment as the population ages and hospitals rely more and more on Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements.
Critical Access Hospitals traditionally have been the foundation of rural communities as they provide affordable access to healthcare, generate economic development, and offer well-paying professional jobs. Yet many CAH's find themselves navigating change as they expand their roles as healthcare leaders. As with many larger urban hospitals, Critical Access Hospitals are evolving with industry-wide changes in healthcare delivery methods, technology and demographics. While Critical Access Hospitals share traits with urban hospitals, they are tailored to their individual markets on a smaller scale.
What do you picture when you hear the words "hospital food"? Most of us imagine a cafeteria tray of lukewarm, bland food served at a prescribed meal time. That isn't the case with many recently renovated healthcare facilities.
Since you're reading The Leaflet, chances are you have dealt with the constant demands of the healthcare industry, regardless of your role. Whether you're a facility planner, designer, architect, engineer, facility manager, construction manager, or healthcare executive, you know how necessary it is to remain flexible and ready for whatever challenge lies ahead. In our situation, that "challenge" was how to add an entire floor into the plans for a new building being constructed, without affecting the date the staff and patients needed to move in by - or altering our customer's budget.
Array Architects conducts Rapid Lean Design Events geared to help clients quickly assess their current condition, map out patient flows impacted by the process, identify areas for improvement or streamlining, and then establish an ideal future work flow.
Changes in the healthcare field have resulted in a facility design evolution, impacting clinics, hospitals and healthcare users. Chicago-based furniture vendor, Rightsize Facility Performance, has worked with major healthcare providers throughout Chicagoland and the Midwest. Their team members noticed a needs-based trend in overall design, resulting from recent changes in healthcare policy. Healthcare facility managers are catering to a new customer, the patient.
Of all the possible benefits from participating in the Symposium, learning new and useful things must rank very close to the top of the list - if not, at the top. Indeed, as a 'certified' provider of professional education, the Symposium has been providing professional development continuing education credits for its high-quality educational offerings throughout its 27-year history.
Knowing what questions to ask up front, leads to more successful projects. Be bold, avoid pitfalls and arm yourself with the top most relevant Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) questions on day-one of your project.
Scheduled for fall 2014 completion, the 2.5 million-square-foot new Parkland Hospital is the largest healthcare construction project in the nation. When the $1.3 billion project is complete, it will serve more than half a million patients annually. With a campus covering 2.5 million square feet, the project includes a new 865-bed acute care hospital, outpatient clinics, parking garage, central utility plant and other support facilities.
As CEO of Anchor Health Properties, I can attribute my passion for developing innovative healthcare projects to my experience in the "retail world" and creating a positive customer experience from a very young age. I grew up living in an apartment in Atlantic City above my parent's retail business, a collection of shops and restaurants called Gordon's Alley. As a young girl I worked in the various shops and watched and learned as my parents interacted with customers.
I've been traveling a lot lately, every week it seems, which is unusual for me. But through this I've had time (lots of it) on airplanes and in airports, and I've been pleasantly surprised to see how much airports have improved in spite of gasoline prices, competition and airline mergers. And considering I'm typically engaged with a healthcare client designing a new facility at the end of each trip, I've been surprised to learn that hospitals could learn a few things from the airport. Here are my top six observations.
Changes in the healthcare industry are increasing the incidence of design-build projects. This article explains how to best utilize professional engineering services within this delivery model to obtain maximum benefit for the owner and user.
Amid the massive changes taking place in the healthcare business, it has become a clich for industry observers to hold forth that, among hospital and health systems, "there will be winners and losers." However, like most clichs, this one contains a germ of truth. Whenever an industry undergoes a major transformation, some competitors will prosper while others will fall by the wayside.
A healthcare presence in a retail setting will be an essential strategy in meeting expectations inherent in a restructured health system where success is measured by keeping patients healthy rather than maximizing billable units of service.
When I spoke at the Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo last October, I put a lot of information out there. Which is understandable given that I had 450 PowerPoint slides. I wanted to take a few minutes and elaborate and expand on a few of the points I made regarding "Black Swan" changes/developments in the healthcare arena which might affect you.
The critical time is now for positive change. Because there's no time when it's not now, why not seize the moment by asking yourself each day, "What's the one thing I can do to further my success tomorrow?"
You know your own good self better than anyone else does only you know what works for you. For example, how hot you like your bath, or whether you would even prefer taking a shower instead of a bathonly you can know. This self-awareness of our personal preferences is a crucial characteristic of how we each engage with our environment and, these decisions we make about how we engage with our environment have a direct and profound impact on the quality of our health, healthcare, and well-being.
I'm a Health Care Architect. For the last twenty-five years I've designed health facilities, mostly hospitals. It's a specialized body of knowledge, and a skill set that separates those of us who practice it from other architects. I'm proud of what I know, and it's ensured a steady stream of work for many like me, for a long time. The practices of health facility designers and builders seemed to be almost recession-proof, through times when other building types specialists were struggling.
On October 20th, 2013, I will lead a 'Healthcare and Design Delegation' to India - organized by the People to People Citizen Ambassador Program - I invite you to join me. Incidentally, the Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo was conceived as the direct result of a similar invitation that I received from John Lind and Dick Hansen (the founders of HLM) to join them for a People to People Delegation to Japan and China in 1985.
In these days when healthcare provider leadership is compelled by huge changes in care provision, as well as looming deadlines for implementation of reform and difficult decisions about capital needs, it is easy to lose sight of parallel transformations taking place. What is always clear is that all transformations are grounded in the fact that our current US healthcare system is not sustainable. From every conference podium across the country since PPACA was passed, the keynote message is that "the train has left the station". Change is underway. And every part of the healthcare sector is involved.
Like most healthcare architects, I always thought of myself as sensitive to the patient's journey through the healthcare system and the hospital environment. But I learned the hard way that until you go through it yourself, you can't really know what it's truly like.
The next five years will be very challenging times for healthcare administrators as they must work to maintain a clear vision and an inspirational voice amid the turbulent currents and complex dynamics of change. The bad news: almost no aspect of healthcare will remain in its current state.
Before a healthcare facility embarks on a project such as a ground-up addition, or department expansion such as Emergency, Surgical, Imaging, Labor & Delivery, Cancer Center they could determine quickly, with relatively minimal expense, in the planning process if their needs and goals will be met as planned and/or, if an expansion is really necessary.
