Healthcare Design - September 2018 - 12

N 2012, Hospital for Special Surgery, a New York-based aca-

demic medical center focused on orthopedics and rheumatology, opened the Abraham Ezra Foundation Activity
Room in its pediatric unit to offer patients a space to gather with visiting friends and family members. Amenities
housed there, including a TV, video games, and crafting
supplies, also served as a fun form of motivation, with staff
offering patients access to the room when they met their
therapy goals.
Over the years, however, the space lost its appeal to both patients and
staff. Its cluttered layout was difficult for patients, many of whom use
wheelchairs or a walker post-surgery, to navigate. Additionally, inefficient storage, hard-to-access gaming devices, and a view that overlooked
mechanical equipment on an adjacent rooftop weren't very appealing.
"It just wasn't working well for them," says Lee H. Skolnick, principal
and founder of Lee H. Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership (New
York), which was hired to renovate the room. "It had a lot of drawbacks
and limitations because the space wasn't used efficiently and effectively."
In 2016, the hospital asked the foundation for funding to renovate the
approximately 320-square-foot activity room. The project was guided by
a list of improvements requested by the staff, including child life specialists, nurses, and pediatric rehabilitation specialists. Among their goals
was an updated environment that would appeal to patients of different
ages, abilities, and degrees of mobility. Additionally, the group desired
more storage and a layout and furnishings that could be reconfigured to
meet different activity needs and user groups. "We wanted to make the
room more open and flexible and also a bit lighter and brighter," says Dr.
Lisa S. Ipp, chief of pediatric medicine at Hospital for Special Surgery.
The new setting, which opened this spring, is organized into three

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SEPTEMBER 2018

B E FORE

TOP: Curved shapes in

the overhead lighting
fixtures and some of
the millwork were
added to counterbalance the room's boxy
shape. A mix of open
and locked storage
bins was also included
in the redesign. ABOVE:
The lack of view and
adequate storage were
among the issues in
the former activity
room.

HCDMAGAZINE.COM

zones: storage space for supplies and medical
equipment located near the entrance; a central
activity area in the middle; and a movie/game
area at the back of the room with custom banquette seating and a wall-mounted flat-screen
TV. To solve the problem of the unappealing
view from the windows at the rear of the room,
designers created a custom mural of the New
York skyline and Central Park that starts on
one wall and continues onto a perforated scrim
that's placed in front of the windows, allowing light to enter the room and a colorful backdrop to the new setting. A neutral material and
color palette complements the artwork, such as
wood-tone composite flooring and maple-colored millwork around the perimeter that incorporates storage and seating nooks. "We packed
a lot into a small space," Skolnick says.
Ipp says feedback on the renovation has
been overwhelmingly positive. The openness
of the space allows the staff to provide medical care when necessary, rather than transfer
patients back to their rooms. Additionally, patients are reportedly more motivated to visit
the room and engage in activities and for longer
periods of time. "Children who see the room
prior to their admission are eager to meet therapy goals in order to visit the room," she says.
-Anne DiNardo, executive editor

JONATHAN WALLEN

MONITOR

http://www.HCDMAGAZINE.COM

Healthcare Design - September 2018

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