Insights & Solutions

Located on the shores of Lake Michigan, the Bronson South Haven Hospital brings a unique delivery of care model and defines a new era healthcare to the local neighborhood and surrounding communities. The 52,000 SF Hospital and Medical Offices replaces an aging, full-service 49 bed community hospital serving both Allegan and Van Buren Counties in Western Michigan. The first floor consists of an inpatient unit, emergency department, imaging, support spaces, as well as the public lobby and dining space. The second floor includes a physician practice setting with multiple exam and treatment rooms to support primary and specialty care providers.

The BestCare® Dignity Suite is a curated collection of ligature-resistant bathroom fixtures and accessories. Designed to create a peaceful and well-balanced environment, the Dignity Suite is stylish and sleek while simultaneously protecting patients’ safety.

E4H planned and designed the first inpatient bed expansion at Virginia Hospital Center since 2004. The multi-phased project will convert existing medical offices on floors 3 and 4 into state-of-the-art inpatient units, with private patient rooms that are 60% larger than other units and 30% larger than standard patient rooms.

The project's mission was to solve the extensive inpatient needs of the campus, with the goal of increasing the number of single-rooms from 30% to 90% and updating the oldest rooms on the campus. The planning & conceptual design process involved heavy user group input including collaboration with the Facility Master Planning Steering Committee, Sustainability Council, Internal Departments, Design User Groups for nursing, support, and ancillary services, and Patients and Families Design User Group.

Rich, R. K., Jimenez, F. E., Puumala, S. E., DePaola, S., Harper, K., Roy, L., Brittin, J. (2020). From Fable to Reality at Parkland Hospital: The Impact of Evidence-Based Design Strategies on Patient Safety, Healing, and Satisfaction in an Adult Inpatient Environment. Health Environments Research & Design Journal, pages in press.  

This webinar will share research and case studies that explore how design can be used as a tool complementing therapeutic protocols to reduce patient stress and aggression on pediatric mental health units.   

Taking advantage of the collective knowledge and expertise in attendance, this webinar will offer interdisciplinary perspectives to evaluate current cutting edge design solutions, help attendees to develop solutions of their own, and inspire further research with the aspiration to transform the future of the care team station in inpatient behavioral health settings.  

Altizer, Z., Canar, W. J., Redemske, D., Fullam, F., & Lamont, M. (2019). Utilization of a Standardized Post-Occupancy Evaluation to Assess the Guiding Principles of a Major Academic Medical Center. HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal

“Let’s do a POE.” Seems simple, right? Design professionals get the potential value of post-occupancy evaluation, but they often find that there is zero time after construction is complete to create a POE tool and go through the evaluation process. Can standardized tools that have customizable features provide a balanced solution to this evaluation conundrum?  

Dhala, A., Sasangohar, F., Kash, B., Ahmadi, N., & Masud, F. (2020). Rapid implementation and innovative applications of a virtual ICU during the COVID-19 pandemic: A case study. Journal of Medical Internet Research

The novelty of the coronavirus, combined with the complexity of treating COVID-19 patients, forced many organizations to redirect their critical care staff to the COVID-19 units for 24-hour bedside coverage. The hospital accelerated and expanded their tele-critical care program that connected ICU patient rooms to remote caregivers - virtual ICU (vICU). This technology ended up augmenting their critical care capacity during the COVID-19 surge. The program was expedited with COVID, and over the weeks, multiple ICUs implemented the vICU and became COVID-19 units.  While the program was not intended for virtual visits, the virtual setup became a welcomed communication tool during the pandemic. The Ops Center collaborated with bedside staff to coordinate virtual family visits, which improved emotional well-being for patients and families. Anxiety about PPE shortages were alleviated, and medical staff and specialists felt more protected with a reduced number of times they had to go into the room.

Mills, P. D., C. Soncrant, J. Bender, and W. Gunnar. “Impact of Over-the-Door Alarms: Root Cause Analysis Review of Suicide Attempts and Deaths on Veterans Health Administration Mental Health Units.” General Hospital Psychiatry 64

In order to reduce inpatient suicide, ligature resistance has been a focus of CMS and accrediting organizations for the past several years, but questions remain as to how far we go and where the real risks lie. In this study based in the Veterans Administration, researchers conducted a retrospective review and analysis of system-wide data of suicide deaths and attempts. As with other studies, the majority of suicides or attempts involved hanging, most of which used doors as the anchor point. Of events where the patient was using a door, more than a third involved an over-the-door alarm (OTD), and none of those events included a death. While correlation does not prove causation, the results suggest that OTD alarms prevented death. Knowing the alarm might alert staff became part of the deterrent. Quite simply, in mental health units where the risk of patients committing suicide is high, OTD alarms may help save lives, as part of a comprehensive strategy that includes sight lines, rounding, ongoing maintenance, and even ligature resistant bedding.