Insights & Solutions

When you think of your organization’s setting, you probably focus on its visual and functional aesthetics. But do you also connect the design approach to the logistics of the communication that occurs in the space? If not, you could be missing some very real opportunities for improvement, since research reveals that the two can be closely linked.

As the focus in healthcare hones in more and more on that all-essential interaction between physicians and patients, you’ll want to be more aware of how your design choices facilitate such meaningful communication.

When you think of your communication goals, they’re probably focused on promoting your healthcare organization broadly within your community. Of course this is an essential ingredient in attracting highly qualified staff and building patient volume. But did you know that it’s also just as important—if not more so—to develop an internal communication strategy?

With technology serving up even more state-of-the art advances in patient care than ever before, many hospitals are incorporating these IT improvements into their operations to create a virtual feast of high-quality offerings.

Take the Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa, California, which just opened its doors in October of 2014. The organization spent $284 million to construct a brand new, high-tech facility that incorporates the latest and greatest IT tools and capacities and uses them to achieve the highest-quality standards of care and treatment.

As the Children’s Hospital at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Colorado has recently discovered, being a technologically advanced facility doesn’t mean you have to take a high-tech approach to your design elements. In fact, just the opposite is true at this pediatric hospital, where the most important goal is creating a nurturing environment that can help young patients to heal so they can go home faster.

The recommitment of St. Mary’s Hospital, a member of SSM Health Care, the first health care organization to win the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, to its downtown location came with ambitious aspirations. Expanding their campus to visually fit into their community, creating a welcoming experience, and providing the latest technology in an efficient chassis were all welcomed challenges to the design team.

Martha Jefferson Hospital’s vision is to “set the standard for clinical quality and personal health care.” Martha Jefferson’s goal is to re-define community health care and become a national benchmark through a complete replacement hospital strategy. Kahler Slater’s design team’s goal is to ensure that their new vision is met through every experience at their new campus in Charlottesville, VA.