Do you ever find there are times where your "wheels are just spinning" but you're going nowhere? And doesn't it seem that those times when you're unable to get traction or any forward-movement on a project, are also the times you're under tight deadlines?

In many instances, the way to plow through mental roadblocks lies in a change of scenery or tackling a project from a different perspective. If you're really lucky, the change of scenery will involve some time in nature, or a chance to meet new, thought-provoking people. There are also ways to incorporate exercise, meditation and learning experiences outside of your usual expertise that can infuse renewed energy and open up your creative thought process. I think we all have different ways to find the inspiration we need to unwind, refresh and get re-energized.

We'd like to be a resource and a partner you can come to for the inspiration you want, when you need it, with resources available to you 24/7. From in-person and online events to tools and research advisory services, we can provide you with timely healthcare industry research advice along with project management support that will help inspire and propel your thinking and healthcare facilities projects.

There are several upcoming opportunities to learn about new design strategies, meet industry experts and get inspired.

In the Insights and Solutions section of our website, we offer the resources and tools that will provide you with knowledge that's actionable, knowledge you can quickly incorporate into your projects, along with the latest industry news to see what others are doing. Here are just a few of the open resources you can find there:

As always, let me know what tools and resources are helpful to you, and we'll feature them in our future newsletters.

As demand for faster, more efficient and progressive projects across renovations and new construction accelerates, the request for in-person, cross-team collaboration has followed suit.

Co-location holds the promise of significant savings in time, effort and financial resources, while enhancing the quality of the documents, construction process and finished building.

While simple in concept, the practice of design and construction teams working together from a central operations hub requires thoughtful consideration and coordination beyond that of traditional project delivery.

Though it does not require a specific contractual arrangement, at its heart, co-location entails realignment of practices and priorities from that of individual entities to that of the project.
Health Facilities Management, more. . .

The $550 million Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago is a replacement facility for the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, a place where adults and children seek care for complex conditions resulting from traumatic brain and spinal cord injury, stroke, amputation, and cancer. But the project didn’t just give the provider a new space; it gave translational medicine a whole new approach.

The building is designed so that clinicians, researchers, and scientists work together, every day, in shared spaces that surround patients. The results are a shortening of the time it might otherwise take to discover new treatment methods and apply them to care delivery. The 1.2 million-square-foot hospital was completed in December 2016 and houses five ability labs dedicated to specific functions (for example, the Legs + Walking Lab) and their associated interdisciplinary teams.

It was early feedback from patients that shaped the branding and operational approach, inspiring a focus on rehabilitation as a process and not an outcome and on what patients can do rather than what they can’t. Because it was critical that the new building support that strategy as well as goals for intense collaboration, the owner began what was dubbed a “living experiment” in 2012, outfitting the existing facility with an ability lab. The prototype was used for five years, ultimately serving as a key validation tool that shaped the vision and design of the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab.
Healthcare Design, more . . .

Today’s health care facilities need environmental infection control strategies that can address a range of threats, from the most common health care-associated infection (HAI)-causing pathogens like Clostridium difficile to emerging antibiotic-resistant bacteria and viral pathogens.

In late February 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) published its first-ever priority pathogens list, a catalog of 12 families of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that pose the greatest threat to human health.

Environmental services (ES) professionals must take this list as well as other unlisted threats under consideration as they develop a cleaning and disinfection program for their organizations. The WHO list is broken up into three categories.
Health Facilities Management, more . . .

Heathcare Facility Floors Getting More Attention in Infection Control Efforts

At any given time, about 1 in 25 inpatients contracts an infection while staying in a hospital, leading to the loss of thousands of lives and cost to the U.S. healthcare system of billions of dollars each year. The devastating financial, medical and emotional consequences of healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs) have the industry searching for answers.

Make no mistake, most hospitals prioritize cleanliness. They may even exceed infection-control guidelines by doing things like replacing curtains between patients or cleaning the rooms of infected patients more than once a day. Unfortunately, it turns out this is not enough.
CleanLink, more . . .

Prioritizing Hospital CEOs’ #1 Priority: Cost Control and the Physical Environment

According to Advisory Board’s Annual Health Care CEO Survey, cost control has surpassed revenue growth as healthcare system CEOs’ number one priority. Hospitals are large enterprises, whether they are part of healthcare system with hundreds of hospitals, or a single hospital with hundreds of beds. Additionally, each hospital can encompass hundreds of employees in both clinical and operational faculties. Even as hospitals and their systems grow larger, 62 percent of surveyed CEOs identify “preparing the enterprise for sustainable cost control” as their top priority.

The executive director for research at Advisory Board noted that health system CEOs “recognize that any effective growth or financial-sustainability strategy must be built on a competitive cost structure in order for their enterprises to deliver high-quality, cost-effective care to the patients they serve.” Hospital leadership recognizes this importance in both the practice of care and the environment of care. But how?
Healthcare Facilities Today, more. . .

The AIA Academy of Architecture for Health’s Case Study Library

Architects, designers and planners usually conduct literature reviews, site and facilities tours, and occasionally put together informal “case studies” for their clients and teams to review before beginning a new project. The AIA/AAH Research Initiatives Committee proposed a new and more formal format for these type of informal case studies with the idea that increased rigor will improve the quality of the case studies and eventually lead to more detailed POE studies by researchers.

In 2016, the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health began a pilot case study project utilizing the UCLA Outpatient Surgery and Cancer Center Project (one of the 2013 AIA/AAH Healthcare Design Award winning projects). This was followed up in the spring of 2017 with additional case studies utilizing six of the seven 2016 AIA/AAH Healthcare Design Award winners as the first phase of a case study formatting project with the goal of “bridging the gap” between research and practice by creating a Case Study Library located on the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health’s website. Since that time, another 14 case studies have been added with plans to add another 12 before the end of the year.
AIA KnowledgeNet, more. . .