From this month, Sanitary design kicks off a new Design Outlook column that focuses on the future of healthcare design through the lens of projects in progress.
Our goal is to showcase works in development that represent new and innovative planning, architectural and interior design solutions in response to trends, challenges and expectations linked to healthcare design in the future. This column on the back page will include a Q&A with a project leader about specific design details, as well as reflections on general trends and where the industry is headed.
Design Outlook column shows innovation
Our inaugural article features a Q&A with Bill Wolpert on E4H architecturewho reviews the Fair Haven Community Health Care clinic in Fair Haven, Connecticut. Scheduled to open in early 2025, this new health center will integrate healthcare and wellness services while aiming to become a vibrant hub where residents can gather for medical and behavioral health care. and community-driven activities, which help fill a void in the neighborhood, Wolpert says.
Healthcare spaces that encourage connections
The idea of bringing people together and fostering connections within healthcare spaces also emerges in several projects featured in this issue. And while the healthcare sector has long focused on using design to improve engagement between patients and physicians, current efforts go beyond that scope to benefit employees and communities at large.
As you read this issue, you’ll find the expanded staff lounge at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora, Colorado, which is designed to make it easier for colleagues to collaborate or have one-on-one conversations. Essentia Health’s new medical center in Duluth, Minnesota, features a main street corridor filled with amenity spaces such as a chapel, cafeteria and conference center for staff, patients and the public.
These welcoming spaces not only support efforts to improve the healing environment, but can also play a role in addressing the growing problems associated with disconnection in our country. Less than a year ago, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Surgeon General of the United States, published a new Notice to the Surgeon General calling attention to the public health crisis of loneliness, isolation, and lack of connection and its impact on physical and mental health, including increased risk of heart disease. diseases, strokes and developing dementia.
In a section titled “Mobilize the health sector”, the report outlines the need to integrate social connectedness into prevention and care efforts at primary, secondary and tertiary levels to help prevent or mitigate forms of social disconnection, as well as provide support to those already experiencing such challenges.
As healthcare facilities continue to strive to become centers of health and wellness within their communities, I look forward to seeing the new approaches and strategies that project teams offer to advance this important effort.
