Healthcare Design - April 2014 - 38

The comfort of home
With new standalone facilities no longer restricted
by design guidelines for acute care spaces, hospice
design has evolved into a mix of hospitality and
residential styles with plenty of room and amenities

(Portland, Maine). "This trend is encouraging small,
well-appointed centers that focus on living, not the
ending of living."
In order to execute this approach, today's hospice
facilities feature private outdoor patios, walking trails,

for both patients and their families.
Granted, hospice still requires medical resources
like patient beds, gas hook-ups, and nurse call systems; however, creative strategies can mask an institutional look, when possible. For example, moveable
artwork or casework can conceal medical gases,
and beds with moveable foot ends can enhance
patient comfort and mobility, and enable loved ones
to sit at the foot of the bed, explains Kelley Hoffman,
project manager/senior designer, Spellman Brady &
Co. (St. Louis).
Likewise, Mullinax says he frequently replaces
nurses' stations with standalone desks that are
visible to the public, while the medical staff is based
in an out-of-sight workroom. At the same time,
nurses must keep an eye on patients, but this can
be accomplished through view windows, which also
enhance patient privacy and reduce interruption by
limiting the need for staff to enter the room.

pianos, fireplaces, dining rooms, lounges, and personal shelving space for pictures, cards, and flowers.
"Some plans go as far as designing patient rooms
with direct access to a courtyard, allowing the bed to
be rolled outside should the patient wish to do so,"
Hoffman says.
Soft, indirect lighting is common, along with
natural materials such as stone and wood paneling,
casework, and trim. Ceilings are sometimes higher,
or even vaulted, in smaller, one-story facilities, with
ceiling fans and operable windows adding to the
residential feel, explains Jeni Wright, principal, Kahler
Slater (Madison, Wis.).
Mullinax says that while the use of carpeting or
wood flooring can further enhance the feeling of
home, maintenance issues have made faux-wood
vinyl with a foam backing a more common choice.
In terms of the building's exterior, more and more
designs are mimicking the architectural form of a residence with design features
such as sloped roof lines.
"Most of the designs we've
seen use Craftsman-style
elements such as long
eave and soffit overhangs
supported by ornamental
knee bracing," says Kevin
Kitchens, project manager, Perkins & Williamson Architecture (Hattiesburg, Miss.). "Tapered columns are
often featured in these designs along with materials
such as stone, brick, and lap/shingle siding."

Kahler Slater's rendering for a
new Agrace HospiceCare facility
in Janesville, Wis., features
residential-style sloped roofing,
natural materials, and beautiful
landscaping.

"Designing a hospice room is a sacred assignment," explains Douglas W. Whitney, president,
WBRC Architects and Engineers (Lakewood Ranch,
Fla.). "A hospice room is not only a place to keep a
terminal patient comfortable, it's also a place where
patients and their families will visit, reminisce, comfort each other, and, ultimately, say goodbye."
"Today, there's less focus on the clinical aspects
of hospice care and greater understanding of the
need to create a peaceful, nurturing environment
for patients and families," adds Whitney's colleague
Richard Borrelli, healthcare studio director, WBRC
38

HCDmagazine.com 04.14

For the family
Family needs are a high priority in hospice. As such,
a pull-out bed in patient rooms, where at least one
family member can spend the night, has practically
become a design standard. For example, at Agrace
HospiceCare's new inpatient hospice facility in Janesville, Wis., Kahler Slater designed a small, discrete

©KAHLER SLATER 2013

Hospice still requires medical resources like
patient beds, gas hook-ups, and nurse call
systems; however, creative strategies can mask
an institutional look, when possible.

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Healthcare Design - April 2014

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