Phoenix Health Design Insights Networking Event

Scott Rasmussen, Project Architect, Devenney Group Architects

The Quail Run Behavioral Health Hospital:  A Story of Conversion

Converting a four-story office building into a 102-bed acute inpatient behavioral health hospital presented a host of design challenges to overcome. Attendees will hear the design and construction challenges, including unique design challenges for behavioral health, fireproofing, and modifying the existing exterior glazing system to ensure a safe environment. The presentation will conclude with results of the six-month post occupancy evaluation.

Thomas E. Harvey Jr., Senior Vice President, HKS Health

Clinic 20XX: Planning for an Ever-Changing Present

Findings of a research study asking the question: "How do we design, not for a faceless future, but for an ever-changing present?" To answer this question we sought to understand what are the key drivers of change in healthcare, review prevalent trends in response, assess the facility implications of these trends, identify innovations and evidence support through literature searches and case studies, and finally, via the filter of what patients and physicians want, develop a framework for a change-ready clinic. 

It is evident that there is an avalanche of shift in care modality emphasis to outpatient care and preventive health. As such, many new trends are emerging but the evidence base remains thin. What is also not clear is whether patients really want what is being provided, are physicians on board, and are the trends we see today just a fleeting idea du jour, or are they sustainable and here to stay? Most importantly, what are the key components of a change-ready clinic that can withstand a rapidly changing healthcare ethos? The findings of this study shed considerable light on answers to these questions.
 

Melinda Bohlmann, Director of Sales - West ,Carstens, Inc.

Increasing Nurses’ Time at the Bedside Could Mean Fewer Medication Errors

Multiple factors impact medication errors in healthcare.  Many are intrinsic (those that have a physiologic origin) to the staff who prepare and administer the medications, as well as extrinsic (those precipitating from environmental or other hazards) to the organization, such as their policies and procedures and cultural issues. However, few studies explore how aspects of the built environment impact medication error rates. This presentation will examine the role of decentralized medication distribution (versus a central medication room) on the impact of nurses’ time at the bedside and medication errors