Healthcare Design - August 2016 - 35

the University of Connecticut's Dempsey Hospital
opened in the early 1970s, it was considered innovative with its elliptical floor design and combination of
private and semiprivate patient rooms. "By today's
standards, all of those things are undersized and
inadequate in terms of being able to deliver patient
care and support our missions in education and
research," says Thomas P. Trutter, associate vice
president of campus planning, design, and construction at UConn Health (Farmington, Conn.).
Working with SBA/HKS Joint Venture, the organization started construction in 2012 on a 169-bed
patient tower on campus that would feature all
private patient rooms with accommodations for family members; conference rooms with technology and
space for clinicians, residents, and students to discuss cases; and decentralized nurses' stations with

center," Trutter says. (For more on the project, see
page 37.)

glass-walled work rooms that provide privacy while
still allowing visual observation of the patient rooms.
The organization isn't stopping there, either. As part
of the state's Bioscience Connecticut Project, introduced by Governor Dannel P. Malloy, UConn added
a 320,150-square-foot outpatient building and is in
the process of renovating its research and academic
facilities on campus. "We're focusing not only on
inpatient services here on campus but all of the other
missions associated with being an academic medical

at FKP's Dallas office. "These spaces are equipped
with technology giving teams the ability to quickly
access diagnostic images or consult other physicians
remotely."
Technology is also playing a starring role in the ORs
to record and broadcast surgeries to classrooms or
conference rooms, where students and instructors
can watch and learn in real time. That same equipment also helps connect staff from different departments on campus, including research and labs. Stan

The four-story UC San Diego
Health System Outpatient
Pavilion, designed by CO
Architects, is scheduled to
open in spring 2017 and will
house an ambulatory surgery
center with eight ORs, an
outpatient radiology center
serving the entire campus,
and interoperable clinics
focused on specialties such
as orthopedics and sports
medicine.

CO ARCHITECTS

Incorporating new design elements
One of the biggest influences on the design of academic medical centers is the evolution of medical and health
sciences education, says Tom Chessum, principal at
CO Architects (Los Angeles). "Education is becoming
interprofessional: They're training the physician, the
nurse, the pharmacist, and the public health students
together for portions of their education," he says.
That's influencing the built environment, as more
academic medical centers add off-stage areas to
support education and collaboration. "Instead of traditionally rounding right outside the patient room, they're
creating small areas on the inpatient floor tucked away
out of corridors," says Holly Ragan, managing principal

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Healthcare Design - August 2016

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