Healthcare Design - August 2017 - 91

Q&A

with J. Todd Robinson, AIA
executive vice president/
principal
ESa (Earl Swensson Associates)

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?
Our portfolio is stronger today
than it was 10 years ago.
We design for all healthcare
sectors and are seeing market
growth for behavioral health
and rehabilitation. ESa has
a significant presence in the
ambulatory care market that
includes microhospitals,
freestanding Emergency
Departments, orthopedic
centers and cancer centers, to
name a few.
Ten years from now, the
marketplace will continue to
grow in system development
that will include a strong
presence of ambulatory services
to support better system care

and bring services closer to
the customer. Over the coming
years, we know that healthcare
will consistently change its
delivery.
What role does collaboration
play in your process? How do
you ensure the right people have
a voice at the design table?
Collaboration is essential to
all good design and requires
a strong team of owners,
planners, designers and
builders working closely
together to ensure on-point,
quality design. The design
process should also include
clinical expertise and the
voices of patients and families.
Collaborative design should
not only shape the building's
architecture but also form the
operational effectiveness. To

In a collaborative approach, one of ESa's young designers explains his rationale for a design solution on one of the firm's healthcare projects.

ensure the right people have
a voice regarding design,
all participants should be
qualified, experienced, buy into
the process and demonstrate
overall collaborative spirit.
What's one critical question
your team always asks clients in
initial project meetings? Why?
One of ESa's philosophies
focuses on our designers being
good listeners, so it is imperative
that we not only listen, but also
actually hear what our clients
tell us. One of the first critically
important questions we ask
clients is, "What keeps you up
at night relative to your facility
concerns?"
We tailor our solutions toward
helping our clients solve their
challenges. From the beginning
of a client relationship, we
need to know what are their
biggest challenges and then
determine how we can help to
resolve those challenges.
Tell us something surprising
about your company that people
may not know.
ESa has an average employee

tenure of over 16 years,
and, being one of the larger
healthcare architectural
firms in the country based
on volume, this tenure is
highly unusual. With the
complexity of healthcare
design, changing healthcare
environment and presentday codes issues, our depth
of experience provides our
firm a strong knowledge
base. There is no better
education than experience.
This depth of experience
allows us to mentor our
young healthcare designers
and challenges us to stay
current in healthcare design
trends. We prefer to bring
in young designers to
collaborate on ideas and to
benefit from our expertise
so they can continue our
firm's future.
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Healthcare Design - August 2017

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