Healthcare Design - September 2021 - 30

INDUSTRY MVP
MOLLY M. SCANLON
PhD, FAIA, FACHA, Director of Standards, Compliance and
Research, Phigenics LLC (Tucson, Ariz.)
W
ITH A DEGREE in architecture
from Clemson University
and a doctorate in environmental
science from University
of Arizona, Molly M.
Scanlon is an accomplished healthcare architect
with a unique cross-disciplinary focus on
public health. It's a background that led her to
her current role at Phigenics, where she examines
the built environment's impact on human
health with the goal of reducing illness and injury
from exposure to pathogens in building
systems. It's also what established Scanlon as
the ideal individual to lead the American Institute
of Architects (AIA) COVID-19 Task Force
as a chairperson and public health advisor. Under
her leadership, the task force completed a
series of strategic workshops that culminated
in teams of public health and healthcare professionals
working in conjunction with architects
and engineers to develop tool kits for use during
the pandemic. In total, 11 tool kits were created,
including four for healthcare surge capacity and
seven focused on reopening and maintaining
civil operations.
Despite the confusion that existed early in the
pandemic due to emerging data on transmission
and shifting care protocols, Scanlon leveraged
her experience to evaluate emergency
pandemic response methods and available COVID-19
research to formulate the task force's
mission. For example, regarding care settings,
Scanlon's catchphrase became " stop trying to
build a hospital. " Instead, she guided the team
toward developing spaces where healthcare
operations could be performed safely within
nonhealthcare settings. This shift in mindset allowed
the task force to rapidly translate healthcare
building code language into a tool kit for
creating alternative care sites.
While the work provided an immediate benefit
to the architecture industry overall, the
eff ects of Scanlon's task force leadership have
30
SEP TEMBER 2021
gone on to inform both governmental agencies
and healthcare providers in future pandemic
planning as well as guide surge capacity
response solutions published by the Facility
Guidelines Institute. As her HCD 10 nomination
states, " Rarely has our healthcare design
profession had both the opportunity and duty
to exercise our professional authority than
in the COVID-19 pandemic, " and Scanlon
emerged as the Industry MVP who steered
that response.
WHAT DO YOU LOVE MOST ABOUT YOUR JOB?
I enjoy interfacing with clinical, facility management,
design, and construction professionals
to protect patients from exposure to
pathogens using best practices, guidelines, and
standards to reduce the likelihood of illness, injury,
or death.
WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
The application of the scientifi c process to produce
evidence to shape the direction of the built
environment for the protection of the health,
safety, and welfare of the public is a very rewarding
experience. Working with collaborators
on research that leads to evidence-based
decision-making is an experience that has
transformed my foundational skills as an architect
to see problems diff erently.
WHAT DID YOU LEARN OVER THE PAST YEAR?
Public health and healthcare organizations
need to better understand the impact the built
environment has on health outcomes. Healthcare
design professionals need to broaden their
practice and reach toward improving community
and population health outcomes. We need
better guidelines and standards for emergency
response, disaster preparedness, resilience,
and recovery, including healthcare settings,
alternative care sites, schools, businesses, and
civic operations.
HCDMAGAZINE.COM
http://www.HCDMAGAZINE.COM
Healthcare Design - September 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Healthcare Design - September 2021
