Healthcare Design - December 2017 - 25

CLOSING KEYNOTE

HCD EXPO SESSION

CRITICAL ACCESS 30 MILES
AT S E A
located on the small
island of Nantucket, Mass., serves a population of 11,000 permanent residents while balancing a seasonal influx of 50,000
additional visitors. However, the outdated infrastructure of
the 60-year-old building creates obstacles for care delivery,
inspiring a replacement project currently underway.
Design team members Jocelyn Stroupe, director of
healthcare interiors at CannonDesign, and Brian McKenna,
Boston health region leader at CannonDesign, shared an
inside look at the planning process and the unique cultural
challenges and opportunities presented by the island locale
during the HCD Expo session "Uncharted Waters: Critical
Access 30 Miles at Sea."
For example, the exterior of the new building will be similar to the existing, guided by a local historic district commission that stipulated, for example, the proportion of
residential-style double-hung windows. This affected more
than the aesthetic, though, precluding the team from pursuing an original plan to prefabricate exterior panels on the
mainland, which resulted in a 20-25 percent cost premium.
In fact, the desire to achieve a modern and contemporary
facility within a traditional setting shaped the project in multiple ways, driving the team to figure out how to deliver the
familiar. "People are happy with the way things are," Stroupe
said of the island residents. To that end, a "large house" style
uses faux dormers, a sloped roof that hides mechanicals, and
a one-story ED and ambulatory wings that are built at a low,
human scale. The main building is two stories.
The interiors were inspired by the idea of craftsmanship,
relying on the island's Quaker roots and an understated but
high-quality aesthetic. The palette includes oak and shades of
"sea glass" and "Nantucket fog" blues. And windows that don't
quite make as much sense on the inside as they do on the outside were solved by building out the frames around them to
create window seats throughout the corridors.
Additional design elements were incorporated with resiliency in mind, as well, recognizing the island's location and
the difficulties that can arise in accessing it or departing in
poor weather conditions. Built to be "the last building standing," McKenna said, the replacement project includes windows that can withstand winds up to 175 miles per hour and
are operable to provide natural ventilation, if needed, as well
as system redundancies, mechanicals on the roof, and dedicated sources of electric and water.
The project is expected to be completed in early fall 2018,
with the first patient seen by late fall.-Jennifer Kovacs Silvis

NANTUCKET COTTAGE HOSPITAL,

HOW TO BE
U N M I S TA K A B L E
AS THE HOST and founder of The Unmistakable Creative Podcast, Srinivas
Rao shares the stories of individuals who "stand out in an incredibly distinctive way." Those individuals range from a former bank robber to a doctor
who teaches the art and science of love.
As for Rao's own story and how he's found his unique career path, he
shared that, too-all part of his closing keynote at the HCD Expo. In 2009,
Rao found himself in what historically was one of this country's worst job
markets, where job candidates weren't rewarded for fitting in but instead were
required to stand out, leading to the sensation of TwitterShouldHireMe.com
by an aspiring job-seeker. At the tail end of earning his MBA from Pepperdine
University, Rao said he decided to replicate what he saw worked and created
his own "100 Reasons You Should Hire Me" campaign.
The problem: It was a flop (and he couldn't think of 100 reasons).
But the failure was key to Rao's ultimate success, because it got him thinking
about why simply mimicking wasn't enough and realizing that the differencemaker is standing out in a meaningful way. Furthermore, he understood the
downfall of simply following what are identified as best practices. "Best practices
are your worst enemy when it comes to imagination and creativity," he said.
So why do we all rely on them? "Best practice lets you off the hook," he said,
noting that it provides someone else to blame if an effort doesn't work out. Additionally, the uncertainty that comes with going down the road less traveled is
daunting. But it's on that road, Rao contends, where one can find his or her own
unique way of doing something. "You're not the best in what you do; you're the
only," he said.
And that idea is the foundation of Rao's premise that if we figure out what
it is that we can deliver to the world in our own unique fashion, competition
becomes irrelevant (he's even authored a book on the subject,"Unmistakable:
Why Only Is Better Than Best"). Think of an artist who has such a unique
aesthetic and viewpoint that a signature isn't required on his work or an author
whose voice is so distinct that you know a passage was written by her without
seeing a name.
For healthcare designers, Rao said, this idea can be delivered through experience-going beyond facility design best practices to create a space that alters
the patient journey in a manner that's distinctively yours.
Part of that process also involves shedding the masks-or labels-we often
put on ourselves or work toward, such as job title, salary figure, or Twitter
followers, that deem us "worthy or not worthy." It's what's underneath these
masks that makes us unmistakable, he said.
For Rao, he discovered that when considering his own titles of blogger, podcaster, author, and speaker, eventually realizing that "artist" was actually most
accurate. "When you see the world through the eyes of an artist, you can't help
but see it differently," he said.
To that end, Rao encourages everyone to consider themselves artists in
their own way and create something every day-even if just for an audience
of one. "By simply making something every day, you change the world," he
said.-JKS 

Watch the February 2018 issue of Healthcare Design for more photos from
the HCD Expo. And for expanded coverage, visit HCDmagazine.com.

DECEMBER 2017

http://www.HCDmagazine.com

Healthcare Design - December 2017

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