Healthcare Design - August 2016 - 147

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Q&A

with Kristin Ledet
IIDA, principal, FKP
How has your company
evolved over the years?
After serving clients for
79+ years, it is easy to
design projects strictly
benchmarked around
previous successes. Clients
and partners value our deep
expertise in planning and
documentation, and we
have transformed to create
solutions based around
what a patient experiences,
what a family values, and
where a caregiver can be
more effective. The addition
of seasoned healthcare

practitioners to the FKP
design team allows us to
connect with clinicians and
understand their perspective.
To stand in the shoes of
anyone along that journey
of care and ask questions
yields more creative
solutions and ultimately,
produces better outcomes.
How was your business
changed in the face of
healthcare reform?
During the onset of
healthcare reform, immediate
design and construction

solutions were often paused
as owners reevaluated
their position for delivering
care in the future. FKP
engaged with owners'
strategic planning teams and
partnered with our clients as
trusted advisors. Together,
we identified cost-effective
operational planning
concepts and outlined plans
to conduct business and
create patient and family
experiences differently in
the future. As owners began
to implement their future
landscape, unique design
solutions enabled those
creative strategies ultimately
expanding our creativity
firm wide. Our firm culture
now embraces the power of
possibility within all projects.
What role does
collaboration play in your
process? How do you
ensure the right people
have a voice at the
design table?
Our design process is
centered on Dynamic
Collaboration. We engage
our clients early and bring
them deep into the design
process. The use of 3-D
modeling and visualization
techniques allows our clients
to step into the design,
and view placement of
equipment and technology
prior to the creation of any
physical mockups. These
tools allow clinicians who

Nemours Alfred I DuPont Hospital for Children. Photo: © Brad Feinknopf 2015.

find two-dimensional plans
difficult to read the ability
to understand their future
environments, saving
time and money as the
project moves forward. We
solicit input and heavily
weigh patient and family
experiences in order
to prioritize key design
decisions.
What are some
challenges your firm
is facing? How do
you overcome those
obstacles? 
Our challenge we regularly
face is the client's desire for
speed-to-market. We might
have as little as 24 months
to take a greenfield site
from project conception to
patient occupancy. With
opportunities like these
we have to ask ourselves,
what are the possibilities
and what are the barriers?
We align ourselves with
strategic partners in
the industry that have
a common design and
construction philosophy, to
guide the client in decisionmaking at critical times.
This approach requires
more collaboration during
the design process with
the subcontractors and
trades, to trust that we are
all making decisions for the
best outcome.
www.fkp.com
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Healthcare Design - August 2016

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