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Insights & Solutions

Project Brief
May 2019 Project Brief

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.

Webinar
January 2018 Webinar

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.  

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.

Blog
January 2016 Blog

The healthcare community has recently come clean on an important fact: patient perception of your hospital’s cleanliness may impact their overall view of your facility much more than you’d think.

The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey provides patients an important avenue through which to share their views of your hospital’s cleaning practices. Many patients will also use their impression of your physical environment’s look and cleanliness to judge the quality of care they receive.

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Executive Summary
March 2014 Executive Summary

Learn about: how excessive noise can negatively impact patients and staff in hospital environments, the various ways to improve patients’ perception of sound, and the specific low cost, medium cost, and high cost design strategies that can reduce noise. 

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Interview
January 2016 Interview

Learn about: what patients really judge when evaluating a facility’s cleanliness, why patient perceptions of cleanliness directly impact reimbursements, and ways hospitals can improve patients’ views of cleanliness, quality, and safety. 

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Design Strategies
May 2014 Design Strategies
Overview

HCAHPS scores related to noise in the hospital environment are typically among the lowest. Acoustic intervention packages implemented by healthcare organizations are often a combination of built environment and operational measures.  

 

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Lessons Learned
August 2014 Lessons Learned

The following are compiled from research literature, case studies, interviews, and other materials to provide an overview on the topic of noise.  

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Project Brief
October 2014 Project Brief

Learn about: how St. Mary's Hospital targeted noise reduction goals for their cardiac care unit, about onsite sound measurements that informed material selection, and about design changes that resulted in reduced noise from the highest sources of sound.

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Project Brief
October 2015 Project Brief

Learn about: how Florida Waterman built patient rooms to reduce noise, how patient satisfaction scores improved as a result of room design changes, and how the team studied the impact of the new design strategy.