Healthcare Design - March 2019 - 26

TOP L E FT: The design of

CRAFTING AN EXPERIENCE

In addition to creating an unexpected setting, the design team also needed to deliver a new patient experience that would reset expectations for
ambulatory care by reducing waiting, improving communication with
staff, and providing a sense of choice for patients and families throughout the building. "We choreographed the ideal patient experience, from
before they arrive in the building to when they leave," Cooper says. "That
informed the layout."
To help patients navigate the building as quickly as possible, Ienuso
says technology has been developed to enhance the process. Upon entry,
patients are greeted by patient ambassadors who assist with registration via digital kiosks in the lobby. Patients are then directed to elevators to access their floors, where staff members have been alerted to expect them. Team members then greet patients when they arrive at their
destinations.
Clear onstage and offstage circulation areas allow patients and families to travel along light-filled perimeter corridors. A typical clinical floor
houses a small waiting area, 12 flexible procedure rooms, and 36 private
prep/recovery rooms, which replace the more traditional open-bay
PACU and serve as a home base for patients and their families throughout their stay. Here, patients can change and store their belongings, undergo their pre-procedure assessment, recover, and receive discharge
instructions, all in the same room.
Small details, such as hooks for hanging coats and purses and furnishings for family members and guests, further signal to patients and their

MARCH 2019

the café was influenced
by hospitality settings
and includes a juice
bar, coffee bar, and
variety of seating
arrangements. TOP
RI GH T A N D A B OV E :

Infusion and radiation
oncology are collocated
on the fourth floor,
with options for where
to receive treatment
ranging from private
rooms (top) to more
open, communal areas
(above).

HCDMAGAZINE.COM

families that they're "welcome and wanted
here," Beckman says. The setting also reduces
stress for family members who know exactly
where to return to find their loved one after
surgery, allowing them to choose to wait in the
room, in a lobby lounge, or at the café on the
second level. "The design plays a role in providing avenues for patients and families to have
agency and choice in their care and their experience in the building," she says.
On the care side, three prep/recovery rooms
are dedicated to each procedure room, allowing for greater consistency and continuity in
the care team assigned to each patient. Using
a decentralized model, the floors feature small
staff stations located outside pairs of prep/
recovery rooms, and in lieu of a central nurses'
station, a single command center is located at
the juncture of the procedure platform where
staff monitor all activity between the procedure
platform and prep/recovery zone.
In support of the project's planning principles, a single, shared staff lounge is designated
on the seventh floor for all clinical and support staff, with access provided via separate
clinical elevators and a stairway. The solution

FRANK OUDEMAN

Inside the lobby, designers utilize a warm, neutral materials palette,
including wood ceiling elements and stone columns and flooring materials, that's repeated throughout the upper floors at varying scales-for example, granite flooring in the lobby is carried into waiting spaces (called
sky lobbies) on the upper floors and the wood ceiling element in the lobby
is repeated in some of the treatment spaces on the oncology floor. "It's
unexpected and helps make those places feel special," says Christine
Vandover, design principal at HOK and senior project interior designer
for public spaces.

http://www.HCDMAGAZINE.COM

Healthcare Design - March 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Healthcare Design - March 2019