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DESIGN FOR HEALING ENVIRONMENTS
Healthcare Workstation Typicals >
Promoting Form, Function and Comfort in Healthcare Furnishings
Expansive urban medical centers and rural community hospitals have similar interests in interior furnishings. They favor comfortable, modern designs with upscale details akin to those often reflected at resorts.
Streamlining Healthcare Spaces
It’s no secret that the healthcare industry has experienced major changes over the past few years. Hospitals and integrated delivery systems serve more patients in less time and sometimes with less staff than ever before. We have added countless rooms of technologies.
Accommodating Patients’ Families in the Hospital Environment
In today’s healthcare environment, family members are more than mere visitors. They serve as an extension of hospitals’ care-giving staff, according to David Simon, director of research and design for Brandrud Furniture.

OPERATIONAL TRENDS + HIPAA
Emory Dean Warns of Scarcity of Nurses to Care for Aging Population
The United States is in the midst of a major healthcare challenge: A dearth of registered nurses is mounting as aging baby boomers are requiring more care.
Accommodating Patient Privacy and Visiting Family Members
How well-planned patient rooms can meet the needs of patients, their family and hospital staff
Using an Information-Based Approach to Nursing Unit Planning
Nursing units are generally planned around the nurses’ impression of the best working environment. While the experiences of nurses and administrators are certainly valuable information, they can also be the most dangerous.

HEALTHCARE CONSTRUCTION
Behind the Healthcare Boom
The healthcare industry is not using words such as downsizing, restructuring and closures to describe its market climate. As a matter of fact, the healthcare industry is in the midst of a construction boom spurred by a number of factors, including aging facilities, growth in patient demand, increased competition and advancing technology.
California Hospitals Struggle under Financial Burden of Seismic Retrofits
California hospitals are facing a fast-approaching seismic upgrade deadline that is causing many of them to wonder how to fund the mandate.

INFECTION CONTROL
Education the Key to Sustainable Hand Hygiene Compliance
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) represent one of the leading threats to the safety of patients admitted to hospitals.
Preventing Transmission of Multidrug-Resistant Organisms
Consumers of healthcare are increasingly concerned with the safety of their care. Recently, there has been heightened awareness of strains of germs that are resistant to several classes of antibiotics called multidrug-resistant organisms, or MDROs, within facilities and in the community.
Disrupting the Infection Chain
Each year, an estimated two million patients obtain an infection that is associated with a hospital visit, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). About 90,000 of those end in death.

HIGH TECH HOSPITALS
Hospitals Create Security Programs to Safeguard Laptops and Data
The theft of laptop computers and private data is happening nationwide. Hospitals are not exempt, according to recent reports by the news media.
Designing for Technology and People
Healthcare design—more than any other type of project—is driven by the challenge of two conflicting needs.