Nemours duPont Pediatrics Specialty Care & Surgery Center

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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