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Insights & Solutions

Get the latest trends, tools, and resources for improving healthcare environments here. Browse our many free and members-only resources, including research reports and issue briefs, interviews, case studies, design strategies, lessons learned, key point summaries, and webinars.
    Executive Summary

    Safety Risk Assessment: The Center for Health Design Toolkit - Risk Components
    July 2018 ∘ Executive Summary ∘
    This summary compiles the executive summaries of six Safety Risk Assessment Issue Briefs to provide a high-level overview of the latent conditions of the built environment and their related design categories found in the CHD SRA toolkit.
    Webinar

    The Medical Behavioral Unit: Enhancing Patient Safety and Experience Through Design
    June 2018 ∘ Webinar ∘
    With no known precedent, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia pursued a vision to develop a new pediatric patient care unit: one that would meet the requirements and licensure of an acute care unit, but would provide a safe and supportive environment for patients with a comorbid developmental, behavioral, or psychiatric diagnosis. A multidisciplinary team worked together to envision, plan, and design an environment to support a new model of care for this unique population. Key elements of the project—a remodel of an existing unit—include patient, family, and staff health; circadian lighting; biophilic design; and safety.
    Tool

    Design Insights & Strategies Tool
    June 2018 ∘ Tool ∘

    Healthcare is provided in a variety of settings, from a person’s home to outpatient clinics, to the hospital. While the settings and specific design elements may differ across the continuum of care, the objectives of safety, efficiency, satisfaction, and high quality care remain constant. This set of interactive diagrams provides a link between the evidence base, design strategies, and desired outcomes – in a visually intuitive and actionable format.
    Project Brief

    A Virtual Nature Experience Reduces Anxiety and Agitation in People with Dementia
    May 2018 ∘ Project Brief ∘
    Learn about the capacity of a virtual nature experience to significantly reduce stress, reduce anxiety, and increase pleasure, and treatment strategies that provide hope of reducing pharmacologic interventions and of improving quality of life for individuals with dementia and the staff who care for them.
    Webinar

    Designing for Adolescents in Mental Health Crisis: A Story of Research, Innovation, and Hope
    April 2018 ∘ Webinar ∘
    Adolescence can be a tumultuous time in one’s life. Mental health conditions often surface during this stage, and it may be the first time that some patients enter an inpatient behavioral health unit. How can design best support this patient population that is transitioning from childhood to adulthood? Learn how a design team utilized research, Lean processes, and innovation to solve the challenges of this unique patient population for the 27-bed Adolescent Behavioral Health Unit in Tacoma, Wash. Find out how design can support a seclusion- and restraint-free care model and how pushing beyond the conventions of behavioral healthcare design was achieved.
    Interview

    The Design of a Psychiatric Clinic in Borås Sweden Strives to Create a "Healing" Environment, an interview with Stefan Lundin and Cristiana Caira
    February 2018 ∘ Interview ∘
    Learn about how the design of a new psychiatric facility strives to normalize mental illness through carefully chosen materials with the goal of creating a “homey,” non-institutional setting, why private patient rooms will be included in the new final building as an important part of the design concept, and how research helped shape the architects’ beliefs that the built environment should support patients’ dignity and independence as part of the recovery process.
    Project Brief

    Innovative Design Consolidates Diverse Behavioral Health Programs into One Comprehensive Center
    February 2018 ∘ Project Brief ∘
    Learn about how a county directive to relocate different behavioral health programs into one location led to a unique design for serving low to high-risk populations in an integrated facility, and how collaboration among the architect, interior designer, landscape architect, owner, staff, and clients played an integral role in shaping the programming and design.
    Issue Brief

    Design for Behavioral and Mental Health: More Than Just Safety
    February 2018 ∘ Issue Brief ∘
    As part of the Behavioral & Mental Health toolbox, in this issue brief you will learn about the prevalence of behavioral and mental health conditions as comorbidities; design strategies for promoting psychological wellness; and a systematic benefit analysis approach to meet the psychological needs of all.
    Interview

    Understanding the Unique Design Needs of Behavioral Health Facilities, an interview with James Hunt, AIA, NCARB
    February 2018 ∘ Interview ∘
    Inside you will learn about: why behavioral health facilities have very different design requirements than general hospitals; how different areas of a behavioral health unit have different safety needs that influence design choices; and which types of safety measures and products should be incorporated into behavioral health units.
    Webinar

    Safety Risk Assessment 2.0
    January 2018 ∘ Webinar ∘
    When we design healthcare facilities, we may not always have a complete understanding of how we can proactively design for safety and account for risk beyond fire and life safety. How can we more effectively consider safety issues like infections, falls, medication errors, injuries associated with patient handing or behavioral health, and security? This webinar introduces the new, easier to use, online interface for The Center’s Safety Risk Assessment (SRA) toolkit, a proactive and systematic approach to designing and renovating healthcare facilities for safety. Originally developed through research and consensus to support the requirements of the FGI Guidelines, The Center's research team will walk you through the why, what, and how of each part of the online SRA toolkit illustrating features with vignettes gathered from the testing process.