Interior Design & Architecture

Art helps heal

CONCORD, Calif. – Visual art programs in hospitals and other healthcare facilities can help patients, families, and facility staff, according to a white paper posted at the Center for Health Design.

Citing numerous benefits from stress reduction to improving healthcare outcomes, the white paper provides guidelines for art selection and placement; case studies of exemplary programs, and avenues for future research. For more information, see www.healthdesign.org

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VA hospitals go green

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Patients, staff, and visitors at the Loma Linda, Calif., and Dallas VA medical centers who happen to gaze skyward in the coming months are likely to see a flurry of roof-level activity.  The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will be installing a rooftop photovoltaic system at each campus to provide clean, natural, sun-powered electricity this summer. 

By using sunlight, a free renewable fuel, these systems will reduce the medical centers’ electricity costs and provide environmental benefits to the medical center, VA and the community. 

Solar hot water energy system work is underway at the Dallas facility and at VA’s West Los Angeles medical center, and two facilities in Arizona have added solar water heating to the list of energy-efficient measures they plan to implement. 

VA plans to award a contract for a wind energy pilot project at its medical center in St. Cloud, Minn., by the end of this June and a contract for a geothermal energy pilot project at the Boise, Idaho, VA Medical Center by the end of September.  Both the wind and geothermal systems will be installed by September 2009. For more information, see www1.va.gov

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Tower showcases healing environment

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – A new nine-story, 400,000-sq.ft., $161 million renovation project, the Central Patient Tower overlooks the St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center campus in Boise, Idaho. Designed by HDR, Inc. of Houston, Texas, this project is the latest enhancement to the one million-sq.ft. St. Alphonsus campus, now called the Center for Advanced Healing. In addition to 160 new beds, the new tower houses 16 operating rooms, a 32-bed intensive care unit (ICU), and 288 private patient rooms. It was designed to improve patient health outcomes, privacy, comfort, and safety.

Other features of the facility include “smart” beds that help reduce staff injuries and enhance patient care; a new Kissler Family Library & Research Center; healing environments that take into account the benefits derived from a patient’s view out the window, the color and patterns on the wall to the healing art, to the healing arts and decor carefully; and a new circulation route around the campus to improve access to the facilities and wayfinding.

Construction manager for the project, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc., of St. Louis, Ms., also renovated 60,000-sq.ft. of the existing North Tower space to create a new Cancer Care Center and completed the construction of a new two-story, 40,000-sq.ft. Family Maternity Center adjacent to the Central Tower addition.

To enhance the healing environment, green construction technologies and materials were used in the new facility. Recycled and recyclable carpeting covers waiting area floors. Double-paned windows carry a low-E rating. The new rooftop chillers use low impact refrigerants. Lighting and plumbing are both sensor operated.
An important part of this project was careful consideration of noise level and lighting. Corridors have carpet and high acoustical-rated ceiling tile to prevent transfer of noise into the patient spaces. 

The medical center was also part of the Pebble Project, a research partnership between the Center for Health Design (CHD) and leading healthcare institutions. As a result, each of the patient rooms contains state-of-the-art technology designed after careful consideration of the needs of patients, families, and caregivers. Six functional zones exist within each patient room, fostering privacy, and care support. Zones include: patient, family, caregiver, support, hygiene, and technology. 

As part of the Pebble Project research, SARMC conducted a study measuring decibels per room in the existing unit and in the newly remodeled unit. The quality of sleep after two nights went from a 4.9 to a 7.3 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 indicating no sleep interruptions. In addition, patient, and staff satisfaction scores have soared on this unit.

The Pebble Project with Saint Alphonsus expects to measure employee turnover, medical outcomes, length of stay, cost per unit of service, patient satisfaction, and organizational behaviors.

"The new facility is the centerpiece for the Saint Alphonsus Vision 2010, which promotes advanced healing principles for the patients we serve,” says FM Fugate. “Our facilities are now as excellent as the care that is given at the bedside.”

Designed by HDR, Inc. of Houston, Texas, this project is the latest enhancement to the one million-sq.ft. St. Alphonsus campus, which is now called the Center for Advanced Healing. In addition to 160 new beds, the new tower houses 16 operating rooms, a 32-bed ICU and 288 private patient rooms. To enhance the healing environment, green construction technologies and materials were used in the new facility. Recycled and recyclable carpeting covers waiting area floors. Double-paned windows carry a low-E rating. The new rooftop chillers use low impact refrigerants. Lighting and plumbing are both sensor operated.

For more information, see www.sarmc.org

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Call for Entries

NEW YORK – Contract Magazine is now accepting for entries for the 2008 Healthcare Environment Awards.
Operated by Contract in conjunction with the Center for Health Design, the Healthcare Environment Awards recognize innovative design solutions that enhance the quality of healthcare delivery. Each year, a panel of judges reviews entries in the following categories: acute care; ambulatory care; health and fitness; assisted living; professional conceptual; landscape design; and student design. Winners are published in Contract Magazine’s annual healthcare issue and also are recognized at the annual Healthcare Design Conference.

Entries are due June 30, 2008. For more information, see www.contractmagazine.com

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And the winner is…

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Winners of the 2008 Blair L. Sadler International Healing Arts Awards are:

• Melinda M. Bridgman coordinated Art as a Source of Healing, a model collaboration, now in its seventh year, between Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and Emma Pendleton Bradley Hospital in East Providence, R.I.
• Judith-Kate Friedman developed a comprehensive music program entitled Songwriting Works at the Jewish Home (SWAJH) in San Francisco, now in its eleventh year.
• Lisa Gallagher designed a program to study The Clinical Effects of Music Therapy in Palliative Medicine through her work for The Cleveland Music School Settlement in conjunction with the Harry R. Horvitz Center for Palliative Medicine at The Cleveland Clinic and funded by the Kulas Foundation.
• Patricia Caballero Schillaci created a year-long dance movement/therapy program, Prenatal Therapeutic Dance Project (PTDP), to improve prenatal education and care as well as to provide mind and body healing effects for pregnant women.
• Xueli Tan, a music therapist, conducted a study, The Effectiveness of Music Therapy Protocols during the Debridement Process, to explore ways that music therapy could help burn patients in intensive care experiencing pain, anxiety and muscle tension throughout the process of burn wound dressing changes. Key investigators (and co-winners of the Sadler Award) included two medical doctors, Richard Fratianne, MD, FACS and Charles Yowler, MD, FACS, FCCM.

For more information, see www.thesah.org/doc/Sadler2008PressRelease.pdf

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EMCOR announces new projects

NORWALK, Conn. – EMCOR Group, Inc., a mechanical and electrical construction firm, has begun work on a number of important new projects in the healthcare sector.

EMCOR’s recent project awards in the healthcare sector include:

• Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center (Mishawaka, Ind.), a mechanical contract for this new $250-million, state-of-the-art, seven-story critical care facility.
• Sutter General Hospital (Sacramento, Calif.), to provide electrical systems for the renovation of this 351,000 square-foot facility.
• Geary Community Hospital (Junction City, Kas.) , to provide plumbing and mechanical systems for the three-story, 100,000 square-foot expansion.
• Mannkind Inhale-able Insulin Facility (Danbury, Conn.), to provide HVAC piping, including chilled water, hot water, compressed air and steam condensate piping, to all HVAC and Process Equipment. .

For more information, see www.emcorgroup.com

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HC architect wins award

SACRAMENTO, Calif.– The American Institute of Architects, California Council (AIACC) named Derek Parker, FAIA, as the 2008 recipient of the Distinguished Practice Award.

Parker has significantly impacted healthcare design. His accomplishments include the creation of breakthrough innovations in healthcare projects, the cultivation of a practice to grow from the local level to an international entity, and the leadership to spur healthcare designers to respond to changes in the healthcare industry. For more information, see www.healthdesign.org/

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Denver VA gets new tower

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A new bed tower and a research tower for Denver-area residents and veterans may result from an expanded partnership involving the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Colorado Hospital (UCH). 

The two structures, to be built on university property at the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center campus, will accompany a state-of-the-art VA Ambulatory Health Care Center, which will also be constructed at that location.
The new VA Medical Center will provide primary and specialty care for Rocky Mountain-area veterans; outpatient surgical services; and a nursing home care unit.  VA doctors, nurses, and other clinical personnel will serve veterans at the bed tower in what has been called “a hospital within a hospital,” while non-veteran patients will be served by UCH staff.  VA and University of Colorado - Denver researchers will work side by side in the new research tower. 

This partnership will allow the two organizations to share resources, such as laboratory and imaging services.  It will further strengthen the long-standing partnership among the two organizations. For more information, see www1.va.gov

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