Healthcare Design - September 2018 - 7

EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

Hank Adams

GET TO WORK

Healthcare and workplace design are converging,
but where do we go from here? By Jennifer Kovacs
Silvis
THE CONTENT we include in the pages of Healthcare

Design needs to answer your expectations for what
"healthcare design" means-even as the definition
continues to evolve. It wasn't long ago that in order
to be considered for coverage, projects needed to include spaces where care was delivered. Fast-forward
to today, and it's not so cut and dried.
Healthcare design can encompass everything
from dining space to respite rooms to telehealth
centers to simulation labs. Another big one on
my radar right now is workplace. This year when
I reviewed session proposals for our upcoming Healthcare Design Expo &
Conference (Nov. 10-13, Phoenix), I found numerous mentions of workplace
design. Even one of our 2018 Design Showcase Honorable Mention winners,
David W. Bernolfo Center for Global Vision, is essentially an office.
And the way the topic is being discussed in this sector today represents a
marked shift from how it's been referenced in the past. For example, we've
heard a lot about clinic environments-onstage/offstage layouts, team collaboration zones, elimination of physicians' offices. But what's percolating now
gets to the heart of any organization: administrative space for the countless
workers supporting providers on the back end.
All of those staffers require workspaces. And like the rest of corporate
America, healthcare is trying to get it right. That's the head-scratcher these
days. Look around you right now. Are you in an open-plan office working
alongside your colleagues with few walls between you? Chances are, yes. But
just as this approach has almost universally been embraced as a way to reduce
cost per square foot while also increasing collaboration, there's now been
time to study it and find inherent flaws.
Some of those flaws have landed in the national spotlight thanks to a recent study out of Harvard University. Researchers tracked workers at two
Fortune 500 companies before and after transitioning to an open plan. In
short, the move resulted in far fewer face-to-face encounters and more email
exchanges. It seems our natural response to fishbowl-like environments is
to withdraw, answering the vulnerability of being exposed by keeping heads
down and headphones on, and trying to look as busy as possible.
Of course, this, too, has shades of gray. Architect Ashley L. Dunn of Dyer
Brown (Boston) wrote a piece for Fast Company, "An Architect's Defense
of Open-plan Offices," noting that the Harvard study was of "extreme" open
plans, whereas those with a mix of open and closed areas (meeting rooms,
phone booths, etc.) are far more successful.
So as you all inevitably continue to explore workplace settings in healthcare, we'll be here with you to help figure it out (more on that coming in 2019).
Because any space that supports care delivery is healthcare in our book. 

Carolyn BaRoss
Jody Barry

PERKINS+WILL

ADVENTIST CARE CENTERS

Jeffrey Brand
Sam Burnette

HDR

PERKINS EASTMAN

EARL S WENSSON ASSOCIATES

Sheila F. Cahnman
JUMPG ARDEN CONSULTING LLC

Thomas W. Chessum

CO ARCHITECTS

James Crispino
G ENSLER

Christine Hester Devens
Mary Frazier

AECOM

EWINGCOLE

Jocelyn Lum Frederick
H C TANG RAM DESIGN

Catherine L. Gow

F RANCIS CAUFFMAN

Natalie Miovski Hagerty
THE CHILDRE N'S HOS PITAL OF PHILADELPHIA

Laurel Harrison

STANTEC

Suzen L. Heeley
MEMORIAL SLOAN KETTERING CANCER CENTER

Scott Holmes
Walter Jones

BWBR

METROHEALTH SYSTEM

Julie Kent

TRINITY HEALTH

Bryan Langlands
Michael Lied
Jain Malkin

G BBN ARCHITECTS
J AIN MALKIN INC.

Mike McKay
Victoria Navarro
Don Orndoff

ERDMAN

ADVOCATE HEALTH CARE
KAISER PERMANENTE

Diane R.K. Osan

FKP ARCHITECTS

Chris Powers HCA
Andrew Quirk

NBBJ

HEALTHCARE

S KANSKA USA BUILDING

Pamela H. Redden
HKS INC.

William D. Repichowskyj
E4H ARCHITECTURE

Kim Shinn
TLC ENGINEERING FOR ARCHITECTURE

Janet H. Sisolak
UT MD ANDERS ON CANCER CENTER

Karl R. Sonnenberg
ZIMMER GUNS UL F RASCA ARCHITECTS LLP

Kurt Spiering
Steve Stokes G RES HAM,

HGA

SMITH AND PARTNERS

Jeffrey C. Stouffer

HKS INC.

Paul E. Strohm
Jocelyn Stroupe

Joshua A. Theodore
Travis Tyson

HOK

CANNONDESIGN
LEO A DALY

CLEVELAND CLINIC

Roger S. Ulrich
CHALMERS UNIVERS ITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Gary L. Vance

VANCE CONSULTING

SEPTEMBER 2018

Healthcare Design - September 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Healthcare Design - September 2018