Healthcare Design - April 2020 - 28

Gardner Neuroscience Institute may encounter several obstacles on their way to an appointment. For example, many patients rely on walkers or wheelchairs to
get around, which makes navigating ramps, doorways,
and parking garages difficult. For others, certain neurologic conditions cause sensitivities to light, colors, and
patterns that could cause vertigo or disorientation.
So when the opportunity came to build a new outpatient facility for the
institute and its 13 centers of excellence, including the Gardner Center
for Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders and The Waddell Center for Multiple Sclerosis, the project team set out to better understand
those challenges before ever putting pen to paper. "We had different patient groups who represented different neurologic problems, and we
said, 'OK, what is your experience of care within the existing facility and
what would be the ideal state for you?'" says Dr. Joe Broderick, director of
the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute and professor of neurology and
rehabilitation medicine at UC Health.
At the time, the institute, part of the UC Health academic medical center campus in Cincinnati, had services spread across multiple buildings,
a sloped parking facility, lack of dedicated therapy space, and an infusion
department that had been retrofitted into existing space. "We had a lot of
issues in a lot of ways," Broderick says. "Our staff was very good, but we
just didn't have the environment that made it easy for patients."
The goal was to use input from patients, families, and staff to design a
patient-centered environment focused on the unique needs of neurological patients while providing a focal point for clinical care, education,
and research on campus. "It was all about patients and families finding a
home for their neurological conditions, where they can get treated and
educated about their disease and interact with the other patients," says
Jerry Johnson, design principal at Perkins and Will (Chicago), which

28

APRIL 2020

Most public areas
are located on the
first floor, including
the lobby, café,
and auditorium for
educational programs.
Glass lithographs of
the city of Cincinnati
in 1914 serve as
room dividers without
impacting the open
and airy feel of the
lobby.

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provided architecture and interior design services on the project.
F R O M PA R K I N G T O E X A M R O O M

The project team looked at the design through
the perspective of both patients and families,
conducting multiple meetings with an advisory
committee. "It opened up the conversation to
much broader, deeper aspects," says Eve Edelstein, director of Perkins and Will's Human Experience Lab (San Francisco). "We heard about
everything from how dramatically difficult it is
for someone with a neurological disorder to find
a parking spot to getting into the building in a
timely manner and their need to access a toilet
quickly, all of which can make the journey to the
hospital a horrific experience."
As a result, design considerations had to start
from the moment families arrive on campus,
with navigating the building from the garage to
the clinic floor presenting one of the first challenges they may face. Specifically, some patients
have balance disorders that make it difficult to
navigate the slope of a garage, while those with
mobility issues or who rely on a wheelchair or
ambulatory device such as a walker or cane can
be impacted by everything from the spacing of
parking stalls to the distance from the garage to
clinic entrances. The solution for the new institute was to incorporate a two-story garage under the building with flat floors for parking and

MARK HERBOTH

P

ATIENTS BEING TREATED at the University of Cincinnati
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Healthcare Design - April 2020

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