Healthcare Design - November 2019 - 68

ERIN PEAVEY SERVES as the health stories

lead for HKS. In this role, she helps integrate research and practice to advance the
creation and communication of knowledge across the firm. Before joining HKS,
she was a senior researcher and medical
planner at HOK in New York, a research
consultant with The Center for Health
Design, and adjunct faculty at New York
School of Interior Design and The Pratt
Institute. She is a trustee for the Academy
of Architecture for Health Foundation,
and her research has been published in international scientific journals and industry publications.

San Antonio State
Hospital, San Antonio

H E A L T H C A R E D E S I G N : W H AT
DREW YOU TO A CAREER IN
HEALTHCARE DESIGN?

Erin Peavey
AIA, NCARB, EDAC,
LEED AP BD+C,
architect and design
researcher, associate,
HKS (Dallas)

Peavey: Growing up in a family of caregivers, I took for granted that life's purpose was to help make the world better
for those in need. My mother was a special education teacher and a counselor,
and my father was a primary care physician. But it wasn't until sitting in an environmental psychology class that I found
my own path to caring. I remember being captivated by how the environment
can help comfort the sick, provide space
for connection, and shape our actions. In
learning of this powerful tool called "environmental design," I made it my mission to use research to create environments that care.

My core takeaways include: (1) professional
proximity and visibility are essential to clinical
care teams; (2) facility changes provide strategic opportunities for system transformation; (3)
despite increased digital communication, synchronous face-to-face interaction plays a major
role in effective teamwork; (4) a variety of spaces
(size, formality, public or private) are needed to
support both collaborative teamwork and focused task-work; and (5) interventions in the
physical environment are more effective when
done in conjunction with system-level change.
W H AT D O Y O U T H I N K I S T H E
N U M B E R O N E I S S U E FA C I N G T H E
HEALTHCARE DESIGN INDUSTRY IN
2019?

The top issue facing the healthcare design industry is the lack of data we collect around our
designs, their intent, and outcomes. We're stuck
where the field of healthcare was decades ago.
We know our decisions have repercussions, but
it's rare that we can show the definitive impact of
those decisions. Currently, firms do not seem to
fully grasp the incredible value of their own data
or that of their clients.

W H AT ' S O N E R E C E N T P R O J E C T

W H A T ' S O N E I D E A Y O U H AV E F O R

T H AT

O V E R C O M I N G T H AT P R O B L E M ?

YOU'RE

MOST

PROUD

OF?

SPOTLIGHT ON

HCD EXPO
The 2019 Rising
Stars will be
celebrated during the
Healthcare Design
magazine awards
luncheon taking place
on Sunday, Nov. 3,
at the HCD Expo in
New Orleans. Visit
HCDexpo.com for
details.

One of the most prominent ideas for collecting valuable data using technological advances
comes from the aviation industry: the use of digital twins. A digital twin is essentially an identical digital copy of a physical machine or system,
such as an airplane. When the real-life airplane
has an error, the digital copy can be used to understand the root of the failure and apply artificial intelligence to find ways to eliminate errors
in the future. In many ways, we are already creating rudimentary digital twins with our BIM
models, but how many facilities do you know
map their errors, hospital-acquired conditions,
or patient outcomes over the skeleton of the
physical building? Architecture shouldn't be
something that most people ignore until it's not
working. Whether from training, research evidence, or just our own lived experience, I think
most of us can say without a doubt that the environment matters, but its effect is often an intangible. We can change that. 
HKS

For almost a decade now, I've been studying the topic of clinician teamwork and
communication. Teamwork is of critical importance due to its links to patient
safety, adverse events, and patient health
functioning, as well as staff retention, satisfaction, and burnout. This past year, Dr.
Hui Cai and I published what I consider
my most valuable contribution to the
field: a paper called "A Systems Framework for Understanding the Environment's Relation to Clinical Teamwork."
The paper helps define, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the relationship
between clinician teamwork and design.
It's a great example of how we can think
beyond just the physical building to integrate the system of healthcare and provide tangible takeaways we can apply to
design and operations.

NOVEMBER 2019

HCDMAGAZINE.COM

OCTOBER 2018

http://www.HCDexpo.com http://www.HCDexpo.com http://www.HCDMAGAZINE.COM

Healthcare Design - November 2019

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