Insights & Solutions

Learn about: how a unit redesign for UW Health will serve as a prototype for future redesign projects, why the new unit must be flexible to respond to a variety of staff and patient needs, and how a multidisciplinary team used a range of observational findings and current literature to inform the overall design process.

Learn about: how incorporating continuous improvement in the design process can benefit healthcare organizations, which Lean elements can serve as a framework for designers to approach a project, why design should be adaptive over time to accommodate changing needs, and how the evidence-based design process and Lean elements can complement each other.

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.

Learn about: how facility design facilitates population health goals for a community health clinic, how pod-based layout promotes staff interaction, collaboration, and efficiency, and how the ‘group visit’ room supports patient engagement, education, and continuity of care.

Built environment strategies can help healthcare organizations and communities promote healthy living, reduce obesity, and prevent chronic disease. Given the increasing focus on community health and preventive medicine, it is important that healthcare organizations and the communities they serve incorporate built environment strategies that result in healthy behavior.

With support from the Kresge Foundation, The Center for Health Design has developed a standardized Community Health Center Facility Evaluation tool that supports design for population health. The tool is intended to support both design and post-occupancy evaluation of built projects with respect to population health goals.

The goal for this project was to set a new standard and image of healthcare delivery, using EBD to achieve positive patient outcomes within the expanding hospital system.  

The goal for this project was to create a highly realistic participatory learning experiences in an environment that does not involve an actual patient. This method of teaching is rapidly becoming a new standard in both primary and continuing education for health professionals. The intent is to improve learning experiences through improved personal and technical skills and interdisciplinary team communications in an environment designed and built around current evidence-based medicine, evidence-based practice and evidence-based design knowledge.

The goal for this project was to improve efficiency, safety, and satisfaction for both patients and staff with the design of a new bed tower for the hospital, a place where patients get better and where staff wishes to work.

The goal for this project was to: make the commitment to use an evidence-based design process, and the following planning objectives were established: clear patient wayfinding, distinct separation of inpatient/service flow versus public/visitor flow, patient access to clinical services, clear access to primary patient service entrances, staff operational efficiencies, reduction of falls and injuries, and visibility across the patient unit within the support core.

The goal for this project was to create a world-class facility using evidence-based design (EBD), LEED, and patient- and family–centered strategies. The re-design of the Ft. Bliss Army Medical Center not only took into account the Military Health System (MHS) World-Class Checklist, but also information gathered from 14 EBD working groups to further influence the design.