Healthcare Design - April 2019 - 14

APRIL 2019

A B OV E : The 12
bedrooms within the
building include generously sized bathrooms
and an open layout
that easily accommodates the movement of
wheelchairs or medical
equipment. A B OV E ,
RI GH T: An enclosed
porch with floor-toceiling windows serves
as a respite area for
patients, parents, and
staff. B E L OW: Warm
woods, crisp whites,
and a variety of seating
configurations create a
welcoming vibe in the
dining area.

HCDMAGAZINE.COM

B ALLOGG PHOTOGRAPHY

OUNG HOSPITAL PATIENTS with medically complex
issues, such as traumatic brain injury or severe Down
syndrome, often can't be discharged until their homes
and families are prepared to provide the ongoing care
they'll require. This generally results in patients waiting in an expensive pediatric or neonatal intensive care
unit environment. One alternative to that situation is
Almost Home Kids (AHK), a decade-old program that
partners with healthcare organizations to provide a homelike setting that
supports transitional care for such children. AHK officials say their facilities are a cost-efficient alternative (roughly $1,000 a day, versus three
times that for an ICU hospital bed) that offers patients and their families
a comfortable place where they can be trained to use items like ventilators
or feeding tubes once at home.
The first two AHK locations, both affiliated with Ann & Robert H. Lurie
Children's Hospital of Chicago, opened in existing buildings-the first in a
former residence in suburban Naperville, Ill., in June 1999 and the second
in a Ronald McDonald House in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood in
September 2012. The latest AHK site is a freestanding facility in Peoria,

Ill., that's affiliated with OSF Healthcare Children's Hospital of Illinois. This 22,000-squarefoot building, which opened in November 2018,
is the first purpose-built project for AHK and
is designed to serve as a prototype for future
iterations of the concept. "Children with medical complexities have been referred to our Chicagoland sites from OSF Healthcare Children's
Hospital of Illinois for many years, but the distance families had to travel to take advantage of
our services, combined with an increasing population of children with complex medical needs,
illustrated the need for us to bring an Almost
Home Kids to Peoria," says Deborah A. Grisko,
president and executive director, AHK.
Stantec (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) was
brought in to design the $8.5 million project,
which was funded solely by private donations.
Because the firm was not involved in the first
two sites, its project team used extensive feedback from families, caregivers, and staff, as well
as visioning sessions, experience mapping, and
full-size room mock-ups, to create design options and walk stakeholders through them, says
Rebel Roberts, principal designer at Stantec.
This process resulted in several changes from
the original AHK environments, such as improved wayfinding, with a visual hierarchy that
clearly communicates the location of the main
entrance and the overall layout of the interior.
Another modification was the shift to private
rooms from the two-patient layouts used in the
first two models.
Key to the overall concept was creating a
homelike feel that would provide a calm, supportive environment for patients and their
families to practice the care routines they would
need to perform at home, Roberts says. The Ushaped building features clusters of spaces surrounding a sunlit courtyard that continually
connects patients, their families, and the staff to
the outdoors. The interior is divided into a central intake area flanked by two wings: one with
12 single-bedroom units and the other housing
a large dining area with an open kitchen, family
room, and physical therapy facility.
AHK officials say they plan to roll out the prototype to other locations. Meanwhile, Stantec
plans to do a one-year post-occupancy survey
at the Peoria facility to further refine the prototype model.-Matthew Hall, freelance writer

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Healthcare Design - April 2019

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