Healthcare Design - August 2018 - 91

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Q&A

with R. Cameron Shantz
Director

involved throughout the
process so that everyone
can understand the driving
factors of each discipline.
This approach helps to break
down silos between health
professionals and results in
more streamlined processes in
health delivery. Some of the
most profound understanding
that I have received has been
from patient representatives
at user meetings.

Parkin Architects Western Ltd.
How does your portfolio
of healthcare work today
compare to 10 years ago?
What do you think it will look
like in 10 more years?
We find that we are more
conscious of the quality of the
environments that we create
within our buildings now.
Attention to the character of
light within spaces, views to the
exterior, acoustics and places
for families to be involved
in the healing process have
gained equal importance with
the basic flows and details for
staff on which we traditionally
focused. We find that our
clients are now more willing
to "spend" money on these
details as they understand the
evidence that the quality of the
physical environment provides
a positive impact to patient
healing.

Providence Care Hospital. Photo: © Studio Shai Gil

What approach does your firm
use to design spaces that
support care delivery today
but provide enough flexibility
for unknowns of the future?
Providing flexibility for
the future is always tricky
as budgets, authority
approvals and thinking
often don't allow for this
type of future proofing. We
still look at all levels of the
design to provide as much
opportunity for flexibility
in the future. At a master
plan level, opportunities for
logical growth on a site are
important. Departmental
planning often allows
for "soft" non-clinical
departments to be located
between areas that are
likely to expand. Within a
department, we use strategies
such as the introduction of

offices adjacent to clinical
spaces so that direct
expansion of clinical rooms
can be accommodated by
decanting spaces that are
not as location dependent.
Right now, we are completing
a Hybrid Operating room that
we shelled into one hospital
in a project 10 years ago.
At a detail level, we really
encourage the use of systemsbased furniture and cartbased solutions. These are
much easier to reconfigure to
meet changing processes or
products that are used in a
department.
What role does collaboration
play in your process? How do
you ensure the right people
have a voice at the design
table?
We believe strongly in a
collaborative approach
to the design of health
spaces. Healthcare delivery
is a collaborative venture;
therefore, the spaces must
work for everyone involved
in this process. Right at
the beginning of a design
process, we emphasize that
a multidisciplinary team
should be involved in the
design. We also ask that
all of these individuals be

What's one critical question
your team always asks clients in
initial project meetings? Why?
"What do you want to be
when you grow up?" We find
that clinicians are great at
telling us what they do on a
day to day basis but we need
to encourage them to think
about how they can perform
really great service if the
barriers they face aren't there.
How would you change your
service delivery if physical
barriers didn't exist? If you
had enough exam rooms,
how would the flow change?
What would you do differently
if there were no silos of
service within the hospital?
Questions like these free up
health care professionals to
think differently about what
they do. Responses to these
questions help us to design
exemplary spaces that push
the boundaries of how care is
delivered today.
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Healthcare Design - August 2018

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