Healthcare Design - June 2015 - 6

E EDITORIAL | 07.15
Editor-in-Chief Kristin D. Zeit
kristin.zeit@emeraldexpo.com; 513.717.1155
Executive Editor Jennifer Kovacs Silvis
Senior Editor Anne DiNardo
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Associate Editor, Reader Engagement Megan Combs
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Art Director Rebecca DeNeau
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FOUNDING PUBLISHER

If these walls could heal
Recent studies and real-world room designs aim to take
HAI prevention to the next level
By Kristin D. Zeit
"We could make the hospital itself into a treatment for the patient."
Now, there's a design challenge. But it's one that Emily Landon, infection control
epidemiologist for the University of Chicago's Center for Care and Discovery, hopes
that providers, architects, and interior designers will take on in the near future, as
she explained to The Wall Street Journal in April. Her facility is in the midst of a comprehensive research study called the Hospital Microbiome Project, collecting and
testing thousands of microbe samples and manipulating room conditions in order to
learn how the environment itself contributes to healthcare-associated infections.
Building materials, bathroom fixtures, ventilation systems, and furniture fabrics
can all harbor and circulate bacteria between caregivers, patients, and visitors, with
new bacteria and potential pathogens introduced with every person who enters a
room. The researchers, according to the WSJ article, "hope eventually to make the
hospital building itself a curative probiotic-perhaps by infusing walls or furnishings
with bacteria that enhance patient health and recovery," among other design-related
infection-control measures. (For more on this research, see "Using Bioinformed
Design to Reduce HAIs" on page 12.)
Some providers have already been taking this call to arms very seriously, working to design spaces that go beyond standard practices to rein in and manage the
spread of pathogens from the second someone walks in the hospital doors. At the
Healthcare Design Academy in Houston (also in April), I learned about two such
efforts. The first presentation described MD Anderson Cancer Center's application
of Lean thinking to infection prevention. Following Virginia Mason's Flows of Medicine exercise, the presenters walked through each of the eight processes (flow of
patients, flow of family, flow of staff, etc.) and discussed specific ways to implement
infection control methods at each one. They then offered some takeaways from a
case study in which this approach was used.
For the second project, the stakes were even higher: a new infectious disease
isolation unit at Texas Children's Hospital. The presenters for this session walked
attendees through the meticulous thinking behind each step of the unit's design and
what they learned through touring other similar facilities around the country.
Both sessions were eye-opening, and you can learn
more about them at HCDmagazine.com/houston-infectionprevention and HCDmagazine.com/houston-texas-childrens.
There are three more regional Healthcare Design Academies
you can attend in 2015; to read the session lineups and
register, go to HCDmagazine.com/HCD-academy. HCD

President and CEO Debra J. Levin

EDITORIAL BOARD
Sheila F. Cahnman JumpGarden Consulting, Wilmette, Ill.
Hamilton Espinosa DPR Construction, Phoenix
Thomas Gormley URS Corp., New York
Walter B. Jones The MetroHealth System, Cleveland
Jain Malkin healthcare designer, La Jolla, Calif.
Andrew S. Quirk Skanska USA Building, Nashville
Kim E. Shinn TLC Engineering, Brentwood, Tenn.
Joseph G. Sprague HKS Inc., Dallas
Roger S. Ulrich Chalmers University of Technology,
Sweden; and Aalborg University, Denmark
Gary Vance Vance Consulting, Indianapolis

HCDmagazine.com 07.15

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at HCDmagazine.com/blog/kristin-zeit, and interact with all the editors at The
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LinkedIn) and on Facebook (HealthcareDesignMag).

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Healthcare Design - June 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Healthcare Design - June 2015