Design Track: Facility Design Regulations and Designing for Disaster

When a new project is under consideration, designers must take into account federal regulations and technical requirements.  They must know exactly what their client’s needs are and what the budget for the project will be.  Different levels of disaster protection and the resulting design implications must also be considered.

Before a designer leaves the first meeting with a new healthcare client, it is critically important to learn certain information about the size, scope, and budget of the project.  On the other side of the table, the owner/operator also must consider certain questions and concerns early in the design process.  In this session, the presenter will discuss best practices when working through the early phases of the design process in order to avoid disputes and design/regulatory stumbling blocks later on.  Learn strategies that can help avoid contract and payment issues before the project begins in order to streamline the process for all involved.

Another issue that must be considered when designing a new facility is the potential for disaster.  Recent news headlines of man-made and natural disasters have made the potential for experiencing disasters all too real and one of the top priorities of hospitals when planning for the future.   This presentation will serve as a case study of the VA Hospital and New Orleans East Hospital renovation and addition that served to restore healthcare to an area of New Orleans 10 years after Hurricane Katrina. We will discuss the then-current climate of a city-wide recovery effort, the limitations the design team faced in a post-storm environment, and lessons learned for rebuilding a resilient and sustainable hospital campus.

Learning Objectives:

1. Review the federal and state requirements for different types of healthcare facilities.
2. Recognize the challenges that hospitals and designers face when undertaking a construction project.
3. Specify the design factors to consider when planning for man-made or natural disasters.
4. Formulate action plans based on lessons learned from actual hospital evacuations, campus relocations, and disaster situations.

View the PowerPoint presentation here.

Design Track: Designing with the Patient in Mind

For innovative healthcare organizations, the paradigm of the patient experience is evolving.  Healthcare design must incorporate the operational, business, and efficiency goals of each institution, but the end-goal is to encourage healing for the patient.  The healthcare patient of 2018 expects to receive care in facilities that are new (or updated), comfortable, and inviting.  The design process is critically important in creating spaces that make the patient experience better and less stressful from first impressions to the follow-up survey.  In addition, healthcare facilities must address the growing number of security risks, including the unique challenges associated with vulnerable patient populations.                                       

In this session, we will highlight innovative and new approaches to designing spaces that encourage healing and promote comfort for patients.  Additionally, we will discuss approaches to understanding how to improve the patient experience – from facilitating worksessions to evidence-based design, to post-occupancy evaluations.  Learn how design can positively or negatively influence the patient’s healing, comfort, stress level, and experience.  Discussion will include approaches to facilitating patient-focused visioning worksessions to incorporate the patient’s needs into the design process.

Design must also include a comprehensive security plan that ensures a safe and secure environment for employees, patients, and visitors.   The potential for violent incidents, crime, cyber-attacks, terrorism, and other emergencies is increasing, and the response to and mitigation of such incidents are significant concerns for all healthcare organizations.  It is vital to address these concerns in the design of new or renovated facilities.  Designers must implement and integrate security elements that ensure the delivery of patient care services in a reasonably safe and secure environment.  Methods of meeting the challenge of providing cost-effective integration of security applications in architectural, engineering, and environmental design will be discussed.

Learning Objectives:

1. Explore the ways that design can affect patient experience.
2. Compare approaches to design that incorporate the needs of the patient.
3. Investigate best practices available to address security issues in the design process.
4. Discover opportunities to limit the potential for security disruptions in healthcare facilities.

View the PowerPoint presentation here

Design Track: Revitalizing Patient Care

As the healthcare industry shifts from centralized to decentralized care, many hospital systems now adopt a hub-and-spoke model to bring outpatient care to communities by offering clinics in addition to acute care at a main hospital campus. Some clinics have adapted buildings of other typologies, such as retail. These new medical facilities revitalize retail cores while offering state-of-the-art care located near existing public transportation, highways, sidewalks, parking, and urban utilities.  While the adaptive reuse model has the potential to bring outpatient services to a convenient location for patients and families, the model has its own set of unique challenges and risks.

A prime example of this approach is Seattle Children’s South Sound Clinic, a 40,000 SF outpatient clinic adapted from a former Circuit City store that houses a range of services including urgent care, outpatient care, occupational and physical therapy, and other specialty departments.  During this presentation, audience members will hear from the client and architects, who will share details of how they worked successfully through planning, design development, and construction to produce a state-of-the-art healthcare facility located in a transit-oriented, suburban retail development.

The move to outpatient care is a direct result of the trend in designing to meet the patient’s needs.  As health systems look to expand their range of services, outpatient care has come to the forefront.  Increased technology advances allow for more procedures to be done in an outpatient setting than ever before, and patients prefer the convenience and the chance to avoid staying overnight in the hospital.  Hear how the push to improve and increase outpatient care is fueling increases in innovations in care methods.  The challenges that lie ahead will also be addressed, including lower rates of admission to acute care facilities, continuing need for follow-up care for outpatients, and the need for new payment models.

Learning Objectives:

1.Discuss the trends revitalizing the nature of patient care.

2.Explain the process of adapting a big-box retail space into a modern healthcare clinic that provides maximum benefits for patients, staff and the community.

3.Describe the importance of using Lean strategies in the design phase to offer patient-centered care to a community.

4.Outline the challenges healthcare administrators face in providing outstanding care for each patient as the move to outpatient care grows.

View the PowerPoint presentation here.