May 26, 2016

The Scoop

Kaiser Permanente opens first of community health hubs

Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, California, has opened the first of several new medical centers it will build in Southern California that could take patient care and overall experience to a higher level.

Kaiser Permanente plans to raise the traditional medical office building bar several notches with facilities designed to become an attractive destination that promotes health education and activities. The health system’s new 8,000-square-foot clinic in Manhattan Beach in Los Angeles County is the first to open as construction continues or starts on nine other sites. Health Facilities Management, more...

Holiday Prescription

The words “vacation” and “hospital” are rarely used in the same breath—unless the former happens to lead to a stay in the latter. For some patients at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, Denmark, however, a new hotel concept provides the opportunity to find a comfortable escape while receiving treatment at the hospital.

Although the Patient Hotel is by no means a luxury establishment, each of its 74 rooms (which average around 215 square feet) provides the basic comforts of a hotel room, including a television, fridge, desk, bathroom, and private balcony, without the clinical ambience of hospital lighting and machines. “The hotel is designed to inspire a feeling of safety and comfort for patients who may be going through a difficult or stressful period,” says Kim Herforth Nielsen, founder and creative director of 3XN, the architecture firm behind the project. “While patients receive a ‘prescription’ to stay at the Patient Hotel for free, family members can stay along with them at a very reasonable cost.”  Metropolis, more...

The Marketplace Revolution

Like other industries before it, healthcare is bending to consumer-centric pressures. According to The Marketplace Revolution, a new report from Oliver Wyman, consumerism is powering a complete remodel of the healthcare market. But the transformation is about much more than patient-centric innovations. The true revolution, the paper establishes, is the emergence of an entirely new business design, one that ignores the boundaries and economic framework of the existing healthcare market to deliver health and wellness on consumers’ terms. Business Wire, more...

Study determines high-touch areas in the operating room

A study published in the American Journal of Infection Control reveals the five primary high-touch surfaces in operating rooms (ORs): the anesthesia computer mouse, OR bed, nurse computer mouse, OR door and anesthesia medical cart.

Researchers say the impetus for the study was to follow up on a 2010 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention list that recommended high-touch hospital areas to clean, but did not include the operating room in its study.

In the two-phase study, researchers identified high-touch areas and cultured them to determine if those areas were also more contaminated compared with low-touch surfaces. The study demonstrated that high-touch areas were more contaminated, with the exception of the OR bed. American Journal of Infection Control, more...

Learn more at the Infection Prevention by Design Workshop - register now and get early bird savings!

A Living Model – Experiential Continual Improvement

What if every project that a designer completed was actually a living model that evaluated and benchmarked information for continual improvement?  Could the physical environment be used to continually test and strategize on improvement of patients’ and residents’ quality of life?  A living “laboratory” that supports current thinking, while gathering data for improving design and the future of healthcare – that’s innovative. 

This was the premise for Abe’s Garden, a recently opened and award winning Alzheimer’s and Memory Care Community of Excellence located in Nashville, Tennessee. The programming and design of the environment has been established to create a new standard for future programs and community – looking to be a living model for real time evidence to support design and operational decisions that can improve care for residents with memory care needs. interiors+sources, more...

UF Health reduces energy costs by more than $5 million with retrocommission and automation

An energy-saving project that included optimizing the building automation system (BAS) at one hospital and retrocommissioning the system at a second facility cut energy costs at UF Health, Gainesville, Fla., by more than $5 million in less than five years.

The American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) recognized both UF Health Shands Vista Rehab and Cancer Hospital South Tower with an Energy to Care Award for cutting energy use, reducing operational costs and freeing up resources for patient care. Health Facilities Management, more...

The Center’s work is made possible with the funding support of our Thought Leaders: