Top Five Best Practices for Designing Small Healthcare Spaces

As more healthcare providers seek out leases in retail properties, what design considerations come into play – and is size everything? For part two in our series, we’re taking a closer look at the challenges of meeting the design requirements for first-rate outpatient facilities within the unique surroundings of retail and storefront property.

With the shift away from medical office buildings toward retail, healthcare tenants are looking to minimize higher lease costs by cutting back on space. The oft-repeated corporate adage of doing more with less becomes especially important for these facilities. Healthcare providers also must find ways to assimilate to high-traffic, retail-oriented areas to appeal to and capture needed patient volumes. And when those patients enter the facility, providers need to deliver on the promise of a positive healthcare experience in limited space.

In a consumer-driven marketplace, medical tenants can make savvy and strategic decisions about how they plan and fit out their ambulatory facilities to maximize quality and cost savings. Our top five recommended best practices are:

Maximize staff efficiency

This is just as important in small spaces as it is in large hospitals. Analyze how the staff works. Lay out the space to minimize workflow distances, remembering that personnel costs make up a significant proportion of operational costs. Understand points of movement – where do nurses go to get their supplies? Will patients travel far for diagnostic procedures? How do clerks handle registration and check-out? Being clear on workflow will make the best use of the space.

Utilize circulation space

Circulation space presents a good opportunity within smaller spaces to accommodate additional patient care and work areas. Creating alcoves in hallways to accomplish functions such as registration or queuing can maximize their efficiency and still provide pleasant areas for patients and staff.

Provide flexibility for expansion

Healthcare is always evolving – built-in flexibility and adaptability can address these changes. Allow exam rooms to serve multiple specialties. Strategically locate soft spaces such as office, storage rooms and lounges in areas where they can be repurposed for patient care areas. Plan for how the space could expand next door, but do not locate expensive plumbing-intense spaces such as toilets at ends of hallways that could serve as a connection point.

Take cues from other space types – your local small Starbucks is a start!

Waiting times can be long in medical facilities, and it’s important that the patient and family be given comfortable and practical areas to wait, especially with today’s technology. Small coffee shops and cafés have successfully created such spaces by introducing work tables, lounge seating and designated areas for conversation which can reduce anxiety and can shorten the perceived waiting times.

Introduce soothing and lasting interiors

The ambiance of smaller facilities should help in the healing process, rather than aggravate it. Color palettes from nature have been shown to calm and comfort people. In a small facility, creative use of lighting can also be used to maximize this effect with indirect exposure and natural illumination. Finishes that are easy washable not only provide a cleaner environment, but allow for extra cost savings with a longer lifespan.

Author:
By Jose Estevez
Principal, Healthcare Practice
NELSON Worldwide

Advancements in technology have been improving workplace productivity for years, allowing us to work virtually from anywhere. Now that a global pandemic is forcing us to work from home, the question being posed seems to be, why return to the office at all? According our “Evolving Workforce Expectations” study, only 7% of employees want to return to work a full five days a week. If employees are a company’s most valuable asset, employers must make the workplace a sought-after destination for everyone, one that people are excited to return to.

Brands will need to reevaluate their office portfolio and determine a plan to ensure their employees can take advantage of new technologies that make communicating, collaborating, and connecting, more seamless than ever before.

But while technology continues to rapidly evolve to better bridge the gap between physical and virtual workers, the most critical element for successful adoption and activation of these tools will be a robust change management strategy. Employers must provide holistic awareness, training, and buy-in to effectively activate these new, digitally focused offerings.

Here are the four ways technology can be used to make the workplace a sought-after destination:

Instant communication

Brands are having to communicate with their employees more than ever before, and because so many things are constantly evolving, the need for immediate communication is imperative.

Integrated workplace management systems like iOffice and their employee experience app Hummingbird, previously considered luxuries, will be necessities. With technology like this, employees can reserve workstations or conference rooms, submit service requests, be alerted to incoming mail, visitors, and more, all from their own mobile devices. Employers can also keep a close eye on who is in and out of their facility each day, constantly monitoring capacity to keep their employees safe.

As wearable technology gains more popularity, many employers are realizing these tools offer a unique opportunity to communicate with employees. With the traditional, in-office nine to five likely becoming extinct, a singular means of communication like email won’t be enough. And with employees working from a variety of environments including coffee shops, home offices, hotel lounges, and even their cars, wearable technology is something they’ll always have access to.

As the mobile workforce and risks of cyber security attacks continue to increase, innovative solutions like Samsung Knox are changing the way companies use wearables, embedding their software within workers’ mobile devices and smartwatches to secure company data, and help mitigate breaches of private company information.

Real-time collaboration

Collaboration tools will only gain more popularity during and after the pandemic. From video conferencing, to file sharing, there are numerous tools that will make the hybrid work day more seamless. It is no longer just about meeting virtually anymore, it is about going a step further to integrate with multiple platforms, support blended teams, provide robust collaboration opportunities, and the ability to accommodate smaller, breakout groups virtually.

Even before the pandemic tech giants like Microsoft were perfecting their cloud-based collaboration tools, but the social distancing, work-from-home mandates are accelerating this trend. These brands have taken a close look at how consumers have had to change their behaviors drastically in a short period of time and made improvements to their tools to make the digital experience as close as possible to the real-time experience.

Today, digital meeting facilitators can set up automated emails connected to their meetings, making it easier to manage attendance. They can also view a dashboard after to get a big picture report of attendee engagement. Video webinars can be recorded and later shared with the group along with a full transcript, file attachments, and any discussions from the chat window of a video or call. From custom backdrops, and screen sharing, to virtual chalkboards and collaborative documents, there isn’t much you can’t do remote anymore, making tools like these imperative when returning to the physical office.

Other tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams reduce the amount of emails needed in a work day, by offering one, cohesive platform for teams to communicate. Mural is another online tool for ideation sessions, providing a more visual-based platform to facilitate blue-sky thinking.

Connection without distraction

Video conferencing technologies like Zoom are here to stay. Especially since many white-collar corporations are extending the work-from-home period until as late as next summer. This means many workers will need a hybrid environment to connect with clients, colleagues, and business partners. Many will still want their own desk space to retreat to for heads down work, but the popular open concept environments aren’t conducive for lengthy zoom meetings or other new-age virtual tasks.

Rethinking conference rooms of all sizes is one way to accommodate these new hybrid environments. Because guests, clients, and other visitors from outside of an organization are less likely to go into an office that isn’t theirs, large conference rooms, both within the tenant space, and the shared building, sit empty and unused.

These underutilized meeting rooms can be transformed to a few different types of meeting areas:

• Production Pod – For one-on-one video conferencing meetings, a place where employees can go to chat with their colleague who may be working from home, or their client who may not be comfortable coming into the office. Although there isn’t much square footage needed, the room must be sound proof, and equipped with all the AV technology needed to perform a seamless video call, including a large monitor with easy connection to a laptop, a power source, and good lighting for video visibility.
• Collaboration Suite – A little bigger and can accommodate a larger group. This room comes with everything the smaller production pod includes, but with an even bigger monitor with an auto-framing video camera to track and focus on who in the room is speaking and stacked theater seating for visibility. Creating a physical destination that puts blended teams on equal footing.
• Presentation Studio – A production room equipped with podcast equipment, a green screen, advanced sound and recording tools, will be beneficial for employees creating more elevated, digital content that will continue to remain the norm, years after the pandemic.

Essential safety
Revolutionary technologies are improving quality of life for millions of Americans living through this global pandemic. Telehealth services are increasing in popularity due to COVID-19, offering a safe way for patients to stay out of overwhelmed healthcare systems and prevent the risk of exposure. Smartphone and wearable technology tracking has even been used to trace contact of those infected with the virus.
When employees return to work, these types of technologies can make a huge difference. Employers and landlords can start small with zero-touch adjustments like automated doors and motion sensor lighting. Steelcase’s RoomWizard is a completely hands-free solution for meeting room reservations. Employees simply walk into an available room and begin working and the smart technology marks the room in-use.
Larger investments include innovative technologies such as body temperature walk-through kiosks, germicidal UV light, and more. Investing in technologies that make employees feel safe can go a long way and hold significant value.

In the end, the key to success when returning to work will be change management. Think about how quickly we’ve all adjusted to day-to-day routines like working from home, going to the grocery store, and dining out at restaurants. Wearing masks, temperature checks, and social distancing were once foreign behaviors none of us ever had to practice, a few short months later, it seems normal. Managing expectations and offering the tools and environment needed to communicate, connect, collaborate, and stay safe will set employees up for success and get them excited to return to the new workplace destination.

Building and designing sustainable spaces has always been important, but as we become a self-aware society, driving sustainability by way of green building practices far exceeds the boundaries of the building envelope. For the design industry, sustainability considers the project space, surrounding communities from which we source materials, and the eco-system that operates within an environment. In recent years, sustainability has become more than just a “good practice” but a way for organizations to differentiate themselves and make a positive impact on the world.

At NELSON Worldwide, we understand that architecture and design have a unique ability, and responsibility to promote environmental stewardship. Keep reading to better understand key themes we see in the sustainable solutions of today – and the future:

1. WELLbeing

Due to the ever-growing need for sustainable solutions, architects and designers are pursuing certifications in LEED and WELL. While both have been around for quite some time, no sustainability list is complete without mentioning these table stakes. For the workplace, WELL design is one of the fastest-growing certifications and is built and optimized to advance human health and well-being. Taking every interaction an individual can have within a space into consideration, this certification covers 10 core concepts of design considerations related to health and hundreds of standards that revolutionize the design approach. At NELSON Worldwide offices in Philadelphia, the guiding principles of WELL dictated low emitting finishes and furniture and diverse spaces the promote collaboration or support employee rest, yoga, meditation or simply a space to unwind.

2. Natural Moments

Born from the years of bringing ‘the outdoors in’, the design industry is largely promoting biophilic design. While this does include the infamous living wall, the strategy goes much deeper to include any relationship a space can have with nature. Further, bringing living natural elements within promotes wellness through cleaning the air we breathe of particulates, reducing asthmatic responses, and increasing oxygen levels. The aesthetics of biophilic design also promotes mental wellness. From an outdoor patio to a table made from a tree trunk, there are many ways that biophilic design can be adopted. In many of today’s environments, you may notice patterns, finishes, textures, materials, and even lighting that are derived from or mimic nature. Combined, these elements promote eco-friendly, health-conscious elements that foster a more sustainable lifestyle. At Burwood Brickworks, a mixed-use development that will open by the end of 2019 in Australia, the core design philosophy focuses on a database of natural materials that are used in concepts like a rooftop farm and greenhouse cafes.

3. Biomimicracy

Similar but different to biophilic design, biomimicry is a concept that is inspired by the processes of nature that are around us every day and have been around since the beginning of time. In official terms, biomimicry refers to the design of products and materials that draw solutions from nature to enhance structural efficiency, energy supply, and more. Think about the natural insulation found inside cacti or a building inspired by the work of termites. As nature acts as a natural form of architecture, man-made buildings should be able to mimic these successful strategies.

4. Becoming A Circular Economy

According to the Ellen Macarthur Foundation, a circular economy is one that is focused on growth and positive society-wide benefits. This concept most popularly includes decreasing the consumption of finite resources and eliminating waste. In three simple points, this includes:

• • Designing out waste and pollution
  • Keeping products and materials in use
  • Regenerating natural systems

Researchers, architects, and designers from around the globe are teaming up to create basic building materials out of waste materials. In the UK, material consults at Local Works Studio have created a line of wall tiles made out of discarded oysters while coffee mogul, Starbucks, has started to use building bricks made of construction/demolition waste made by Dutch supplier Stonecylcing.

5. Smart Office

Although technology isn’t new to the workplace, embracing advanced technology like artificial intelligence and facility management systems can make a space more sustainable. Offices with smart technology can optimize and control the usage of electricity and water, and monitor air quality. Smart technology can also cut confusion that may come with scheduling and communication tasks, to create a smooth and stress-free workflow. iOFFICE, one of the largest facility management and IWMS softwares on the market, has partnered with various organizations to provide office tech that capture metrics on a space’s energy use all the way down to an individual device.

6. Pre-fabricated Design

Environmentally conscious designers and architects are pioneering a variety of solutions in prefabricated or modular building elements to cut carbon footprint and construction times; traditional builds yield a variety of waste and air quality concerns associated with drywall and finishes and often take a lot of time to complete. These solutions have also proven to be more flexible making it easier to adjust to changes in light, ventilation, foot traffic, and even location. For example, Flying Nest a revolutionary hotel concept by French designer Ora-ito, is a modular structure that can move anywhere in the world. The hotel is currently being used by event organizers, festivals, and exhibits so that new builds are not needed for mobile groups/organizations.

7. Resilient Design

According to the Resilient Design Institue, resilient design is the intentional design of buildings, landscapes, communities, and regions in response to its vulnerabilities. Relative to climate change, resilience involves adaptation to the wide range of regional and localized impacts that are expected with a warming planet. Using these strategies helps us to create buildings that last longer, and in turn, keep us from using valuable resources needed for new builds. In 2017, the Fishermens Community Hospital located in the Florida Keys was wiped out by Hurricane Irma. Today, NELSON Worldwide is using resilient design to rebuild the facility so that is can withstand even stronger tropical storms in the future.

The FRCH NELSON Creative Culture Committee took some lucky FRCH-ers on a field trip last week to the Cincinnati Art Museum to experience the art of Pakistani-American artist Anila Quayyum Agha. The exhibit entitled, All the Flowers Are for Me (Red), was created using laser-cut steel and light. Light emanates from the red lacquered cube, enveloping the gallery in intricate shadows that ripple and change as visitors move through the space. A few FRCH-ers share their reactions to the stunning display:

“I was surrounded by only light and shadow…It was one of most magnificent installation that can calm the agitations of our soul.” ~ Heesun Kim

“For something so out of its element, amazed how the exhibition seemed to fit the space so perfectly; simply poetic. Wonder if this is how the others viewed the artist considering her description of the two different worlds she felt she was living in.” ~ Elizabeth Birkenhauer

“A stunning display of light and shadow. It created a completely immersive yet out of this world experience.” ~ Allison Schmid

“Light lands on all surfaces, reflecting what it’s gone through.” ~ Lawrence Song

“The object floated weightlessly in the air, casting a mesmerizing effect onto every surface.The guests became entwined with the art. Light and shadow danced across each passerby, the intricacies manipulated differently onto each form.” ~ Liz Baverman

If you have not already, we highly recommend checking out this uniquely beautiful exhibit. The exhibition is free to the public and runs until October 15th.

Recently, I had an opportunity to take in Amsterdam, a city that has somehow eluded me in my travels. Free time was limited so my exploration was fast and furious. It would have been tragic if I were to have made my way back home without gleaning something meaningful in the form of inspiration. I had long heard the stories and the tourist-y trappings of what makes the city world-famous, but I remained determined to sneak in an opportunity to develop an enlightened perspective on the city, it’s culture and of course, it’s design. 

Peep the slideshows for a blurred peek at some of what inspired me along the way. Highlights include simply walking the neighborhoods avoiding bicycles, soaking in the charm of the cities many canals, deciphering the quirky architecture, foraging into hotels for hospitality and sustenance, dipping into record shops, a trip to the MOCO for a street art exhibit, a random neighborhood art fair/ street festival, window shopping antiques, and a long-anticipated peruse through the Droog experience. I can’t wait to get back!

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