HGA

Much of our discussion about healthcare design has focused on the patient experience and workflow improvements, yet an often overlooked side of healthcare design is the physicians' own workspace.

As with corporate workspaces, physicians' workspaces are evolving to reflect a more mobile, technology-enabled workforce.

I was working with Rebecca Sanders, a healthcare planner at HGA, on a recent clinic design. We began discussing the evolution of the physicians' workspace in terms of location and size. She noted that these clinical workspaces are taking design cues from the corporate world.

"With the movement toward less space, the traditional physicians' office has evolved from a private closed-door space with a combined exam room to a more open and flexible workspace that focuses on collaboration and shared resources between caregivers," she said.

As with corporate settings, a clinic may have no privately assigned office or workspace-rather they may have hoteling spaces or free addresses that doctors use as needed for the day. A physician splitting time between several clinics may touch down at an open-plan dictation station to update patient files after an exam.

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In my last post, I discussed how designers need to be innovators to meet the challenges facing the healthcare industry today. Changing demographics, new technology, and new funding sources all require new approaches to facility design-and new approaches to the design process itself. 

For instance, by integrating three-dimensional facility prototyping into the design process, designers can test new ideas and healthcare delivery methods that cost-effectively improve patient outcomes. 

My colleagues and I recently implemented such a prototyping process with a major national healthcare provider to develop a design research lab to rapid-prototype and test different clinic module concepts.

Built in the healthcare provider's main building, the lab consists of a series of movable walls, furnishings, fixtures, technology, and signage that simulate different clinic set-ups, from a three-part exam room to traditional exam rooms and group exam rooms.

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