Healthcare Design - April 2017 - 48

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Q&A

with Melissa Davis,
president
BSA LifeStructures

Describe your business in
one sentence.
At BSA LifeStructures we
create inspired solutions that
improve lives by designing
facilities and environments
that directly impact staff,
patients, students and
families who utilize the space
during both exciting and
sometimes challenging times.
How does your portfolio
of healthcare work today
compare to 10 years ago?
What do you think it will look
like in 10 more years?
Design in the healthcare field
has gotten much simpler and
more straightforward.
Ten years ago, healthcare
work was focused on designs
that would fulfill a drive for
more doctors, nurses and

facility workers. Spaces were
designed to look like luxury
hotels rather than hospitals.
Current healthcare design
is much more streamlined.
The goal of designs today is
to be modern and flexible to
meet the constant changes
of the healthcare industry.
For our clients, we access
data we've collected over
the years to create evidencebased design solutions that
make a positive impact on
our clients and their patients.
What role does collaboration
play in your process? How do
you ensure the right people
have a voice at the design
table?
At the very the beginning of
each project, we engage our
client in dialogue, carefully

listening to every detail of
their concerns, issues, and
ideas and working with them
to discover opportunities for
new solutions.
From there all user
groups, decision makers and
experts begin a collaborative
design process. We offer
and encourage mentoring
from our highest experts to
our entry-level employees
to nurture innovation and
creativity from each employee
regardless of experience
level.
Through this process
every person on the project
has a voice, as well as the
guidance, to share creative
solutions for each step of the
design.
What's one critical question
your team always asks clients
in initial project meetings?
Why? 
What is your story?
That is the most important
question we ask each of our
clients. We want to know not

Community Cancer Center South. Photo: Karl Pfeffer, BSA LifeStructures Photography

only the goals of a project,
but dig deeper to the
underlying problem that the
client might be facing.
Our firm's motto is
"Creating inspired solutions
that improve lives." From
neurological surgeons to
first-year students, we strive
to come up with the best
possible solution for each
and every project in order to
improve the lives of those
who will one day occupy that
facility.
How will the design of
healthcare spaces change to
meet the demands of today's
consumers?
By designing for flexibility.
Healthcare technology is
constantly becoming more
innovative and changing
every day. Developing
spaces that can keep up
and stay flexible with today's
changing technology is one
of the most challenging
but exciting aspects to
healthcare design. Today's
vision is to create each
facility with the mindset of a
"one stop shop". Consumers
want to be in and out of
a hospital in as little time
as possible but treated
with the highest possible
quality of care. Through
proper structure, technology
integration and wayfinding
the goal is to completely
change the overall healthcare
experience. 
www.bsalifestructures.com
http://www.bsalifestructures.com http://www.bsalifestructures.com
Healthcare Design - April 2017

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