Insights & Solutions

The goal for this project was to have this facility's deisgn include a patient- and family-centered environment, improve the quality and safety of healthcare, enhance care of the whole person by adding contact with nature and positive distractions, and create a positive work environment. The design would also feature maximum standardization and accommodate future flexibility and growth.

The goal for this project was to include as many features as possible which would help influence positive patient outcomes. EBD features were developed through programming and visioning sessions with the executive team and user meetings, and priorities were established with them in relation to the budget and the desired patient centered experience.

The goal for this project was to receive feedback from stakeholders in order to determine appropriate artwork styles, themes and color palette; Recommend plan for selection of artwork for areas within Outpatient and Inpatient areas based on feedback from end-users; publish focus group survey results for other Baylor Health Care System cancer facilities in order to create a system-wide artwork program.

The goal for this project was to establish four guiding principles: Design for adaptability to enable flexibility of use over time; Incorporate safety initiatives identified in available research; Create standardization of processes, supplies and design to develop a safer environment and increase the value of the facility; Develop archetypes or prototypes for all components including design elements, patient rooms and overall units.

Patient-centered care is a hot topic today. But do you know how to integrate this concept into your operations and settings? If not, you could be missing out on some key elements that can strengthen your organization, while enhancing your efforts to meet the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

For many years, legal precedents have spoken to the need for quality environments for behavioral health patients. Behavioral health facilities span a wide range of care environments including psychiatric hospitals, psychiatric neuropsychiatric nursing units of general hospitals, facilities for the psychiatric medically infirm, neuropsychiatric units, alcohol and drug addiction retreatment facilities, mental health clinics, day hospitals, and day treatment centers. The wide variety of setting and diagnosis is one of the major impediments to creating evidence based design guidelines for behavioral health facilities.

Behavioral health settings guided by strict safety design measures often result in spaces that are stark, plain, and isolated - potentially exacerbating environmental stressors and escalating already difficult patient situations. Acute care emergency settings have a particular set of challenges as EDs are predicting increased visits from behavioral health patients. Faced with the challenge of designing a behavioral health care setting in the Emergency Department at UnityPoint Health in Rock Island, IL, the project team hypothesized that the creation of a Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU) with a “Living Room Concept” would provide a higher quality of care to patients while assisting in the staff’s ability to quickly consult and treat a diverse set of patients entering the ED. 

For the 2014 cycle of the Facility Guidelines Institute's health care design guidelines, a brand new volume is being developed for residential and senior living facilities; entitled the Guidelines for Residential Care Facilities: Design & Construction of Health, Care, and Support Facilities. This guideline includes nursing homes, hospice, assisted living, independent living, adult day care, and wellness/diagnostic facilities. The vetted approach to the guidelines is to provide design information, as well as parameters for Authorities Having Jurisdiction to evaluate and incorporate culture change and resident-centered approaches to the residential-based care. 

Developed through extensive review of research, surveys, site tests, and review and validation by expert advisory council members, this standard set of evidence-based design checklists and post-occupancy evaluation (POE) tools can be used by interior designers to apply research to healthcare design projects and to conduct post-occupancy evaluations of three types of hospital patient rooms: adult medical-surgical, adult intensive care, and maternity care.