Healthcare Design - August 2021 - 31

" This shift also makes sense from a financial
standpoint, especially given the financial environment
healthcare organizations are currently
experiencing due to the pandemic, " she says.
The bulk of the organization's workplace real
estate is in New York City, with a mix of spaces
that are owned and leased and come at a premium.
Still, MSK wanted to do more than simply
reduce costs. " We need to have a more strategic
plan going forward in terms of how we think we
would work best, " she says.
In July, MSK launched a pilot hybrid program,
bringing back around 500 people in its
digital and technology solutions group to one of
its buildings in New York, with employees coming
to the office on two specified days a week.
After Labor Day, the organization plans to bring
back 2,500 support function employees into
several existing buildings, utilizing a more flexible
schedule that allows employees to decide
which days they come into the office. Looking
to 2022, Heeley says MSK will next consider
clinical functions to see if certain roles, such as
dieticians or social services, could be performed
remotely, through telehealth, or in smaller work
settings where employees share space on a revolving
basis. " Every inch of our main campus
is prime real estate, so we've always been trying
to decant people further out, but nobody ever
wanted to leave, " Heeley says. " Now we have this
opportunity we hadn't planned on, so we're going
to take advantage of it and try to push people
to think about what it could look like for them. "
CHOP is similarly introducing a new hybrid
model for certain nonclinical departments.
Working with team and division leaders, it developed
guidelines for specific roles that outline
how often they can choose to work from home to
" WE HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO
LOOK AT THINGS THAT WORKED
WELL AND DESIGN THEM WITH
INTENTIONALITY INTO SPACES. "
- BROOKE BEHNFELDT, GBBN
create consistency within departments while still allowing some flexibility,
Hagerty says. Recognizing that this change would result in existing offices
remaining empty most of the time, CHOP also decided to eliminate much
of the square footage dedicated to employees who are moving to the hybrid
model, including a 250,000-square-foot leased administrative building,
and replace it with a new concept called CHOP Commons, which will offer
a variety of workspaces spread throughout CHOP's network of sites. The
Commons will include conference rooms, huddle spaces, and other meeting
areas that employees can utilize for their in-office days. " A lot of people
like doing their heads-down focus work at home, " Hagerty says. " The
culture aspect, the brainstorming, the retreats, and interactive sessions
around team members is really why you want to bring staff members back. "
Locations, which are expected to begin opening within the next year, will
range from 2,000 to 12,000 square feet, while the largest-a 50,000-squarefoot
Commons-is planned near CHOP's Philadelphia inpatient campus.
Staff will be encouraged to use different CHOP locations that are convenient
for them, as well, with an app-based system to be launched for
the reservation of specific workspaces. While helping pull more traffic
away from CHOP's inpatient sites to ease navigation for patient families,
the change will increase convenience for staff, as well, Hagerty says. " It's
all about offering flexibility and choice for leaders and employees, so they
don't have to deal with a really crazy commute, they don't have to pay for
high costs of parking, and they get to control their hours a little bit more
than they would have when they came in every single day, " she says.
Behnfeldt notes that while there's " real validity " to moving more employees
to remote or hybrid work arrangements, she encourages healthcare
organizations to consider the breadth of administrative staff they
says there's a need to
create better spaces for
telehealth, as adoption
rose to unprecedented
levels this past year and
is expected to continue.
While existing clinical
spaces were adapted
on the fly to meet the
increased demand,
telehealth requires more
purpose-built environments
to address specific
needs, such as acoustical
privacy and technology.
" I think there's little
doubt that telehealth will
continue to become more
and more robust and, as
such, will need dedicated
space that's designed for
it, " she says.
Another lesson from
the past year is the need
for offstage spaces
to support healthcare
workers. " There's a
long history of all space
being prioritized to patients,
and staff making
do with what little space
they have, " she says.
" Finding ways to give
them better offstage/
downtime kind of spaces
and amenities will really
be a priority coming out
of this. " For example,
providing employees
with separate food
service, lounges, resting
spaces, and outdoor areas
that are away from
patients and families
is important, she adds.
" It really allows them to
turn it off for a moment.
Ultimately, that's one of
the things that's needed
to help with burnout,
which we're seeing a
tremendous amount of in
healthcare workers. "
There also might
be opportunities for
some clinical roles to
become hybrid. For example,
Natalie Miovski
Hagerty, senior director,
facilities planning and
design at Children's
Hospital of Philadelphia,
says her organization
is considering moving
away from having multiple
coordinators to one
person on site each day
to support the providers
working in-person, while
the other coordinators
manage tasks
remotely-a change that
will require less space
within departments.
Some nurses in specific
divisions, such as neurology
or endocrinology,
who spend half of their
time in the clinic and
the rest doing research,
calls, or other types of
work, may begin doing
the desk work remotely,
too. " The vision of staff
and clinicians to patients
hasn't changed at all;
it's just a matter of where
they do some of their
focus work, " Hagerty
says.-AD
AU GUST 2021
31
Healthcare Design - August 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Healthcare Design - August 2021
