Healthcare Design - December 2013 - 6

E EDITORIAL | 12.13
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What owners want
A focus group of hospital administrators identifies
three top design issues begging for attention
By Kristin D. Zeit
On the exhibitor floor of the Healthcare Design Conference, in the
Nurture by Steelcase booth, two groups of hospital administrators
gathered at Nurture's request for a discussion that was both candid
and productive. The starting point was a list of 16 priorities, everything from "deliver positive experiences" to "promote sustainability
issues." Each participant was given three votes to cast for the issues
that ranked highest from his or her perspective.
My group's top vote-getters: "promote an integrated approach to
care delivery," "optimize space utilization and enable adaptability," and
"measure improvements in patient outcomes."
During the discussion that followed the revelation of these most
pressing needs, participants volunteered stories of their own efforts
to meet them, with varying degrees of success. One hospital system
had engaged its executives and service line leaders in multiple discussions about open-pod versus closed-pod caregiver spaces before
deciding to go open-pod. But they hadn't consulted one key group
of stakeholders: the doctors. "They hated it," it turned out, because
patients kept interrupting them.
"Culture" came up again and again. "You have to match your
culture to your design," offered one participant. "We got our medical
staff to sign on to our processes ahead of time-and to the idea that
the patient leads the process."
But caregiver involvement in design-even from the beginning-
doesn't always translate into a perfect world when everything is
finished. "They don't necessarily know what's coming in technology,"
said one administrator; added another: "The staff that goes through
the mock-ups aren't always the same people using the finished
facility."
As one gentleman summed up: (1) The organization's goals must
be defined, within the context of "what do we want this new building
to do?" and (2) the operations side must be addressed, i.e., "How
are we going to work it?" Successfully navigating the competition
between these two factors is at the heart of filling the top three
priorities identified by this group-and the other 13 on the list,
as well. HCD

President and CEo Debra J. Levin
EDiToRiAL boARD
Sheila F. Cahnman AECOM, Chicago
Hamilton Espinosa DPR Construction, Phoenix
Thomas Gormley URS Corp., New York
Walter b. Jones Parkland, Dallas
Jain Malkin healthcare designer, La Jolla, Calif.
Andrew S. Quirk Skanska USA Building, Nashville
Kim E. Shinn TLC Engineering, Brentwood, Tenn.
Joseph G. Sprague HKS Inc., Dallas
Roger S. ulrich Chalmers University of Technology,
Sweden; and Aalborg University, Denmark

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Healthcare Design - December 2013

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