Designs Delivered Nemours / duPont Pediatrics Specialty Care & Surgery Center
Table of Contents
Pediatric Expertise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Standing Out in A Crowded Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Voice of the Customer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Shaped by Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Designing for Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Pediatric Expertise Pediatric environments require unique considerations. The successful planning and design of children’s health facilities must account for a wide range of age groups and family accommodations while realizing appropriate levels of safety, playfulness, education and efficiency. We never lose sight of the fact that attending to sick children and their families can be challenging and stressful for caregivers. This is what drives us to design family-centered, nurturing environments.
There is no more sacred a task than being entrusted to help craft an environment for the care of children and their families. Throughout the history of medicine, healthcare facilities have been designed for providers. This is no longer the case. Patients and their families are now empowered and informed to make choices based on readily available data on outcomes, costs and HCAHPS score. Quality, value, convenience, environment and amenities are now top of the list. The patient is designing today’s healthcare facilities.
Using a variety of tools, we would bring together patients and families, as well as clinicians and create quick designs for spaces where care might happen, then run scenarios. Its those events that help us really ensure, as a whole team, that the space is going to meet the needs of the organization. Click to watch the video.
PAGE 4 | Designs Delivered
Standing Out in A Crowded Market In early 2014, Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, based in Wilmington, Delaware, partnered with Array Architects and Anchor Health Properties to develop their first largescale, freestanding, multi-specialty outpatient center in a new market. In a very competitive geography with large academic medical centers, Nemours understood their comprehensive approach to services and caring for the full family were their key differentiators. They knew the facility needed to be both a beacon and catalyst for experience to attract families from all over southern New Jersey. Array’s planning and design teams, working in close collaboration with Nemours, spent eight months on a Lean design journey to develop a new model for outpatient care based on specialty clinic flexibility, which would better adapt to market demands. Program components include integrated physical, occupational, speech and aquatic therapy, MRI with sedation capabilities, infusion services and a specialized outpatient surgery center, affording families to receive comprehensive, best-in-class care within their community.
Visit Array’s website to read about how the team collaborated on a lean-led journey to shift the paradigm from typical MOB to achieve an outpatient center positioned to be future-ready and provide the community with a healthcare facility to meet their needs close to home.
Voice of the Customer
One of the most fulfilling opportunities of any project
Immersive workshops, which included pediatric,
is the ability to work directly with a focus group of
adolescent and teen patients and their siblings,
users. An active, dedicated and diverse group of
created a platform for the free-flow of ideas between
patients and their families began the design journey
the council and design team. This council/design team
with the Array team. These passionate voices helped
engagement manifested into concrete design concepts,
map the experiential goals for the new Center. The
which translated into the way color, texture and art were
arrival experience, ease of wayfinding, the choice of
deployed. One example, a collection of mixed media
quiet or active waiting areas, play space and discreet
collages inspired by the council’s interpretation of the
teen zones originated with ideas formed during youth
influence of nature on its environment, transformed into
advisory council mapping sessions.
the whimsical window graphics at each pod entry.
WATCH: An Interview with Nemours’ Youth Advisory Council One of the great opportunities Array had during the visioning phase to help create a better experience for patients and their families was working with the Youth Advisory Council at Nemours. It provided insight into what real patients experience while visiting various spaces in outpatient centers, so the design team was able to fully understand what it means for them to have a successful experience. PAGE 8 | Designs Delivered
REGULATIONS IN AN EVOLVING AMBULATORY ENVIRONMENT As Nemours sought to allow children to remain close to home for care, they identified infusion services as an important complement to other in-demand outpatient services that otherwise would burden families with long travel times to receive these frequent treatments. Convinced that providing these services in their new location would improve care continuity and the overall experience for patients and their families, the team prepared to face the regulatory challenges of offering these services in a freestanding, outpatient center. In New Jersey, specific regulatory mandates increased
Stephanie Story CHID
Principal & Interior Design Director Stephanie is a LEED Accredited Interior Designer with a diversified
the cost and space needed to accommodate infusion
and progressive career in Healthcare,
services independently.
Hospitality and Corporate Design.
A secondary challenge was to ensure that service
expectations and has created high-
volumes would meet business plan metrics. Through
quality designs that met the client’s
a process mapping exercise, we tested the viability
functional needs and aesthetic goals.
of combining the infusion program needs with the surgery center and MRI programs. Looking at crosstraining staff with similar skills and leveraging spaces that mirrored infusion, Array created a combined space for these programs. New Jersey regulatory agencies
Stephanie has consistently exceeded
She is recognized as a detail-oriented designer with the ability to carry projects through all phases of design and construction. Her approach to each project involves positive interaction with the client to facilitate
approved this strategy, allowing Nemours to offer these
the direction of concept development
services while remaining both operationally-efficient and
and project design.
financially-effective.
Nemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children | PAGE 9
Shaped by Nature INTEGRATING THE BUILDING WITH THE LAND
PRACTICE SPACE FOR THE FUTURE
Expanding to a new market meant acquiring land.
While Nemours operates several outpatient sites,
Nemours purchased farmland along an important
most were developed within existing buildings. This
artery within a growing community. Wetlands, migratory
open site meant Nemours could study the optimal
birds, vernal pools and protected landscape reduced
solution for their ambulatory practices; something
the buildable area on the site and became design
they hope to repeat at future locations. Having not
opportunities as Array led Nemours’ leadership
previously embarked on an outpatient project of
and Family and Youth Advisory Councils through an
this scale, Nemours relied on Array to guide them
exploration to shape their vision and re imagine the ideal
through a rigorous exploration to quickly align goals
patient and family outpatient experience.
with resources. The team’s approach helped hospital
The building was sited along a wooded edge with sweeping views of the meadow, preserving flexibility for future growth. The building position guided its organization; daylighting was abundant, and shared waiting areas have direct access to nature. A two-story promenade connected amenities and all entrances to clinical services on the main level of the clinic. An outdoor playscape is accessible to all who come to the building as well as the Therapy Services Department. Nemours can use the surrounding acreage in the future for educational exploration, wellness walking paths, community events and general recreation space.
administration gain a deep understanding of their current processes across several locations through multi-disciplinary mapping workshops. Nemours leaders knew that density and scheduling would change over time and that an adaptable design was essential. Through investigation, consensus developed around a solution for four flexible pods, each comprised of 10 exam rooms, two procedure rooms and a multidisciplinary team center for providers and clinicians to touch base and collaborate throughout the day. Through value stream analysis with Nemours’ support services team, Array worked to integrate an optimal location for decentralized supplies, medications, equipment and lab processing. All support spaces are accessible via a central support spine connecting all
PAGE 10 | Designs Delivered
clinic pods, as well as the Imaging Department. Service flow was separated from patient and family traffic while remaining accessible to all 30 flexible exam rooms and six procedure rooms. All spaces were designed with the cross-functional user team to ensure maximum flexibility and utilization. For example, if Neurology volumes are high during certain athletic seasons, they could schedule a full pod for four days per week in fall or spring, but transition to two days per week in winter. The Cardiology or Urology programs can use those same rooms on the days Neurology does not use them. Nemours understands the market is unpredictable and the only way to future-proof was to streamline
Kent Doss AIA, LEED AP BD+C Lean Six Sigma Green Belt
Principal & Regional Vice President, Mid-Atlantic Region
processes and the way a flexible platform can facilitate care. The pod design also drove the wayfinding and
Kent’s healthcare work has varied
unique central waiting promenade. A unique portal
from small, focused interventions
design clearly designates each clinic entry in the
within existing facilities to large-
promenade, enabling intuitive wayfinding. Patients and staff can access exam rooms in a straight row from each portal entrance, with support spaces centered between the exam rows. Staff can easily traverse between the pod corridors, and patients need never leave the
scale, free-standing buildings. Guided by an understanding that each project, regardless of size or scope, is an opportunity to realize improved processes, efficiencies and outcomes, Kent has earned long-term client
corridor, through which they had entered. While some
relationships, as well as national
specialty spaces (i.e. Audiology, Ophthalmology) could
awards for design excellence. Beyond
not be accommodated in the universal design, more than 90% of the patient spaces can flex as volumes demand.
design quality, Kent is also a champion for alternate, collaborative delivery methods such as Design-Build, Design-Assist and other Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) for complex projects.
Nemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children | PAGE 11
Designing for Success The design of complex spaces is only successful when the stage is set for clinicians to provide the best care in the space planned, and optimal patient experience merges with the care needs of each space. The postoccupancy studies revealed positive feedback from staff and families. Since opening, interviews with the families involved with the planning have shown the design truly reflects their ideas and priorities. The Nemours staff has reported they are delighted by the level of natural light throughout. They believe the spaces provided for cross-functional team collaboration make them feel more connected to their patients and allowing them to work more efficiently. Families report the zoned exam rooms foster caregiver interaction in an open, respectful matter; they appreciate the room layout and size which accommodates seating for parents and siblings, as well as maneuverability of wheelchairs and strollers. Memorable art ensures easy wayfinding. The space is meeting the project’s flexibility goals; patient access teams are taking advantage of standardized room design to maximize pod assignments by specialty and volume fluctuation. The therapy space is active six days a week across all rehabilitation modalities. The mission to provide world-class care in South Jersey will continue to flourish as the community evolves and expands. The building is a success story, which is directly attributable to the vision, leadership and spirit of collaboration instilled from the beginning of the project, and full-team commitment to serve the most vulnerable constituents in their healthcare journeys.
PAGE 12 | Designs Delivered
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