Insights & Solutions

To transform a traditional episodic outpatient care model into a team-based integrated setting, while enhancing the operational bottom-line and patient care delivery.

Jacobs Medical Center on University of California, San Diego’s (UCSD) east campus in La Jolla is located in the heart of the area’s nexus of biomedical research centers and hospitals. The 10-story, 509,500-square-foot facility is built next to UCSD’s existing Thornton Hospital and connects on multiple floors. It includes a bone marrow transplant unit, 14 operating rooms, labor and delivery unit, NICU and birthing center, and a medical education center with three theaters. Amenities include a chapel, courtyard, garden, and terraces. The building in LEED-registered.

ESa provided master planning and design services to transform the Monument Health Rapid City Hospital campus into a campus equipped to accommodate more patients and to offer more advanced services in an updated environment with efficient patient through-put. Phased improvements include a 260,000 square feet of additions and renovations and a new integrated 80,000-square-foot, four-story hospital office building.

Improvements include a newly relocated, expanded Emergency Department, new bed tower with the addition of 32 critical care beds and shell space, and a Central Utility Plant expansion. The additions have also been designed for future interior buildout, vertical and horizontal expansion.

Lim, L., Kanfer, R., Stroebel R.J., Zimring, C. (2020). Health Environments Research & Design Journal. DOI: 10.1177/1937586719888903

Dhala, A., Sasangohar, F., Kash, B., Ahmadi, N., & Masud, F. (2020). Rapid implementation and innovative applications of a virtual ICU during the COVID-19 pandemic: A case study. Journal of Medical Internet Research

The novelty of the coronavirus, combined with the complexity of treating COVID-19 patients, forced many organizations to redirect their critical care staff to the COVID-19 units for 24-hour bedside coverage. The hospital accelerated and expanded their tele-critical care program that connected ICU patient rooms to remote caregivers - virtual ICU (vICU). This technology ended up augmenting their critical care capacity during the COVID-19 surge. The program was expedited with COVID, and over the weeks, multiple ICUs implemented the vICU and became COVID-19 units.  While the program was not intended for virtual visits, the virtual setup became a welcomed communication tool during the pandemic. The Ops Center collaborated with bedside staff to coordinate virtual family visits, which improved emotional well-being for patients and families. Anxiety about PPE shortages were alleviated, and medical staff and specialists felt more protected with a reduced number of times they had to go into the room.

The 12,500 SF unit was designed and constructed in just 120 days and incorporates all of the planned care and documentation practices to support the Western Maryland community during the COVID-19 pandemic and future events as they may occur. The negative-pressure and ventilator-capable environment was designed adjacent to outpatient facilities and increases the overall capacity of available beds, while limiting the exposure of the infected patients. The unit features two operating modes: “normal,” where the rooms function as typical medical/surgical beds; and “infectious,” where all 20 rooms operate under negative pressure to care for infected patients and provide clinical safety.

Learn about the origins and expanding use of telemedicine for virtual care; the role of the built environment in facilitating care via telemedicine; and how evidence was used to support and develop language for guidance (requirements and recommendations). 

Learn about: the personal abilities and unique challenges faced by aging individuals, including those living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, how thoughtful design can reduce stress associated with declining physical abilities, memory loss, and care provision.

Evidence-Based Design Journal Clubs are one-hour sessions that provide opportunities to interact with authors who recently published EBD papers or articles in peer-reviewed journals such as HERD. Learn as they share ways to put their research into practice.

A White Paper Supporting the Healthcare at Home Interactive Design Diagrams