Did you attend the PSHFE Conference last week? Were you able to catch the IKM Session on Trends in Ambulatory Care Design?
IKM’s Tami Greene, AIA, Associate and Project Manager, and Jeffrey Brown, AIA, NCARB, SAGE, Principal Architect, were joined by St. Clair Hospital’s Joe Thaner, Director, Outpatient Services, to present one of the concurrent sessions to the audience of the Pennsylvania Society of Health Facility Engineering. Their session entitled, “Trends in Ambulatory Care Center Design,” looked at the latest issues impacting facility design, discussed current code standards, and provided examples of IKM’s design work, as well as others’ best practices provided by the Advisory Board Company’s research and statistics.
This well-attended session discussed the ways technology from patient registration to patient tracking is impacting the design of outpatient care centers and the factors that must be considered in the design of new and renovated facilities.
“Our mission is to provide innovative and informed architecture to our clients,” Ms. Greene stated, “participating in conferences like PSHFE allows us to share our knowledge with the audience so that they are able to make better informed decisions about their facilities.”
The code review section of the presentation discussed how the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) Division of Safety Inspection and Division of Acute and Ambulatory Care (DAAC) will review Ambulatory Care Centers (Outpatient Facilities) design documents and facilities when patients receive conscious sedation or higher. In addition, that DAAC will inspect Ambulatory Care Centers that include programs that are under the hospital license. IKM’s Jeff Brown discussed the specifics of the Healthcare Design Guidelines and how they impact facility design and document review.
“Of course, one of the benefits of an experienced healthcare design professional on your team is navigating through the codes and review processes,” said Jeff Brown, AIA, principal at IKM. “We regularly work with the DOH and DAAC on project review and approvals.”
St. Clair Hospital’s Joe Thaner, Director of Outpatient Services, was able to share first-hand the client perspective in the design of new and renovated facilities. He provided insight into how to create efficient patient throughput and integrated services in one facility.
Other factors presented in the 90-minute session covered how technology influences patients, LEAN design for efficiencies including on-stage vs. off-stage design concepts and self-rooming models, and what to consider when retrofitting an existing building in the design of a new ambulatory care center.
The idea for the composition of the presentation was germinated from recent articles written by Tami Greene, AIA, based on her collective experience in designing new and renovated outpatient care facilities in both Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In her article “Holistic Interiors,” published in Medical Construction and Design magazine, Ms. Greene specifically examined off campus retrofits and the superior patient experience – including the design factors influencing moving outpatient services off campus for the convenience of patients.
Likewise in the article, “Considerations in the Design of Off-Campus Ambulatory Care Centers,” published in Western Pennsylvania Healthcare News, Ms. Greene discussed the benefits of first impressions via functionality, reduced patient wait times through design, and the importance of the aesthetically designed interiors for today’s savvy healthcare consumer.
Response to the articles as well as acknowledgement of the trend as indicated by the Advisory Board Company statistics confirmed that this would be a hot topic for the attendees of the Pennsylvania Society of Health Facility Engineers. The audience engagement in the session proved this to be true.
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Contact Us: Not able to attend the PSHFE Fall Conference, but would still like learn from this presentation? Please contact, marketing@ikminc.com to schedule a visit to your facility. (Presentations provided for 8 or more attendees, in one location, Health Facility Engineers, Project Managers or higher.)