Insights & Solutions

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.

King, B., Bodden, J., Steege, L., & Brown, C. J. (2020). Older adults experiences with ambulation during a hospital stay: A qualitative study. Geriatric Nursing

The inability to independently ambulate during an admission frequently results in “hospital associated disability” for older adults. Understanding and addressing ambulatory barriers from their point of view is essential to facilitate better outcomes. Focus groups were conducted to solicit and categorize responses. Researchers uncovered a new place-based concept that they referred to as “Danger Zones.” Unwelcoming environments, inadequate care planning, and interpersonal biases all contribute to challenges with older patient’s lack of ambulation. This study provides a prototype for identifying barriers to ambulation in healthcare settings from the perspective of older adults as well as a broader range of inpatients.

Martins, B. A., Barrie, H., Visvanathan, R., Daniel, L., Martins, L. A., Ranasinghe, D., Wilson, A., & Soebarto, V. (2020). A multidisciplinary exploratory approach for investigating the experience of older adults attending hospital services. HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal, in press.

Giving older adults and others with functional limitations a place to temporarily land while ambulating is the least we an do to promote their functional health in hospitals.

Lorusso, L., Park, N.-K., Bosch, S., Freytes, I. M., Shorr, R., Conroy, M., & Ahrentzen, S. (2020). Sensory environments for behavioral health in Dementia: Diffusion of an environmental innovation at the Veterans Health Administration. HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal, in press.

Not all MSE stimulus or equipment is created equal and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 

Jenny Hastings, Principal at Boulder Associates Architects answers the question, “How has the pandemic affected Lean Management Practices in your firm?” Jenny begins, “We have projects that are speeding up, some that are slowing down.