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The two converging foci of hospital buildings—functional operations and social design- must be married in the architecture of new or renovated patient care housing, according to Charles Michelson AIA, LEED AP, Principal of Saltz Michelson Architects, Fort Lauderdale. With his specialized knowledge of the education, medical and government architectural communities, Charles A. Michelson directs all projects in the public sector for the firm.
“The functional and technical side of patient care must acknowledge advancements in medical science while the conveyance of an environmental sensitivity to the patient’s social and medical needs must co-exist comfortably in hospital design,” Michelson explained.
New diagnostic and therapeutic modalities influence the delivery of health care, thus the scope of hospital architecture. The space needed to adapt to new, often smaller, equipment must also account for the backstage square footage requirements of computers necessary to support the portable equipment.
Additionally a perceptive insight of patient and family situations that provides a people-friendly environment must also acknowledge space for built-in operational efficiency so clinicians can follow a plan toward wellness rather than one to simply diagnose and treat illness.
According to Michelson, with health care reform comes a heightened focus on expandability, flexibility and reengineering in hospital architectural design. Design must anticipate not only expectations of today’s medicine but be flexible enough to adapt for tomorrow’s transformational standards of care. The current impact on today’s healthcare architect is the need to anticipate more out patient, urgent care, and walk-in housing for alternative delivery of health care. Tomorrow’s impact may include expanded methodologies of complementary non-traditional care including new professionals and technologies often not currently supported by hospital buildings.
Evidence based research suggests that soothing designs and visuals can help reduce anxiety and promote healing as measured by lower blood pressure readings, fewer medications and shorter stays. Conveying sensitivity to the patient and family temporary living quarters while providing state-of-the-art medical readiness is a constant target.
Saltz Michelson Architects has garnered a reputation for intuitive architectural solutions personalized for their clients.
“We start with a garnered base of knowledge of the health care industry and support that with interactive engagements with health care professional associations, ‘lunch and learns’ and keeping up-to-date on trade publications to be able to stay a step ahead of the curve,“ Michelson noted, “We also use our base of retail expertise to transfer lessons learned that promote quality branding and merchandising appropriate to hospitals.”
As health care reform mandates new methods of delivery, architects and hospital executives do not always have the luxury of starting from scratch with new buildings. While new construction easily can accommodate planning for cutting-edge technology; renovation of older, existing facilities requires value judgments balancing longevity, flexibility and infrastructure upgrades. Any construction – new or renewed – must integrate creative approaches to impact the patient experience such as interior finishings, lighting and use of renewable resources with creating a better environment to reduce potential for contamination during and after construction (dust, odors, off gases). In order to support a hospital-wide effective infection control strategy, minimizing energy costs , ergonomic designs, ADA compliant particulars and ROI studies are an important planning and implementation activity.
No doubt providing hospital design to allow for effective care delivery -today and for the future- requires architectural consideration of technological integrity plus sensory impact in all areas. It is a philosophy that echoes through Saltz Michelson Architects collective portfolio.
A graduate of the University of Miami with a BA in Architecture and a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning, Michelson is registered in Florida and Georgia and in NCARB Certified. He is a member of the South Florida Hospital and Healthcare Association and the American Institute of Architects.
