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FEATURE
medical office buildings
Ken’s View I
s there a doctor in the box? If not, is there an
ing scrubs when hanging out in the medical office?
app for that? Probably, but if this is the future of
Scrubs were originally worn by operating-room per-
healthcare, I’m not sure I’m on board.
The CHI facility includes 42 patient exam rooms and treatment spaces, pharmacy with retail, diagnostic imaging, and a laboratory. Physical therapy is incorporated into the space and shares an outdoor plaza adjacent to the citywide walking/biking trail. Photo: Kurt Johnson Photography
for contaminants to hide, easy to launder, and cheap
term, at least not according to one online definition
to replace. Outside the operating room, they either
that says it’s a “deprecating sobriquet.” Webster’s
look like pajamas or like someone wants you to think
isn’t saying one way or another, although that es-
he or she is a surgeon but isn’t. They give the illusion
teemed lexicon does assure us that “sobriquet” is
of being clean when, in fact, they can be as easily
neither a fruit-flavored dessert nor a variety of char-
contaminated as other clothing.
coal briquette. Look it up.
ings. “The traditional [medical office building] model is not obsolete. There are still some independent practices that continue to be independent. There is a higher degree, however, of spaces being designed for multiple practices for convenience, efficiency of operation, and effective use of space. St. Anthony North Health Campus, which will open in Westminster, CO, in March 2015, is a good example. The 58,000-sq.-ft., integrated physician’s office building is connected to a new 282,000-sq.-ft. hospital for full integration and alignment of outpatient services and physician practices with inpatient services and the existing facility. The ambulatory-focused environment supports Centura Health’s ability to deliver health services across the full continuum of need,” said Robinson. Drivers in today’s healthcare-delivery world include shifting demographics and markets, new regulations, and changing business models, but the bottom line for all scenarios is cost containment and lean design. Clearly, all of these factors will continue to influence medical office design and construction for the foreseeable future. CBP
DATA CACHE ˆ
View Mayo Clinic’s SPARC program to improve the patient experience. Explore medical office building real-estate trends.
COMMERCI A L BUIL DING P RODUC T S
or whatever they’re called these days, recently was observed sporting scrubs decorated in what looked
aforementioned definition, and instead reveal under
to be a paisley pattern, making the scrubs appear all
that term a healthy number of on-demand, immedi-
the more like the aforementioned pajamas. A doctor,
ate-care clinics, usually located in established, na-
either attempting medical humor or showing off his
tional pharmacy chains. I have my reservations about
high-school biology mastery, observed that her outfit
that, too. Flu shots in aisle 10 and colonoscopies in
appeared to be decorated with paramecium—rather
aisle 9 just doesn’t seem like an agreeable idea.
to the assistant’s puzzled embarrassment, I think.
One well-known chain is taking it a step further
JAN/FEB 2015
cbpmagazine.com
Para what?
by rolling out a new “telehealth” app to give users
Another thing. Why are magazines in doctors’
access to doctors through a smartphone. So how
waiting rooms always so cheesy and old? That was
does that work? If you have a sore throat, you say,
the question posed by a recent study and reported
“ahh,” and insert your smartphone in your mouth?
in a BMJ medical journal, whose editors apparently
And if you have hemorrhoids? Never mind, I don’t
were in a jocose mood.
want to know.
The reason: patients steal the interesting ones.
Anyway, for better or worse, healthcare is be-
Copies of Time and The Economist were more or
coming more consumer centric, although consumer
less left behind, but the more “gossipy” titles disap-
centric may well turn out to be the oxymoron that
peared. However, bear in mind, the study was done
frequently describes customer service. For example,
in a single New Zealand medical office and, as we
do waiting rooms really need T V sets? Do they, in
all know, that country is said to have a large hobbit
fact, distract patients? The assumption must be that
population, so the results were perhaps skewed. I
healthcare consumers will really like hearing about
don’t know if the findings would be similar in, say,
the latest Ebola outbreak or especially love listen-
New York or Los Angeles. More research is needed.
ing to the drug commercials that enumerate pos-
As an antidote to the paucity of compelling read-
sible side effects—nausea, muscle cramps, suicidal
ing materials in waiting rooms, it has been suggested
thoughts, and maybe even death. (Hey, doc, can you
patients bring with them a book they have really, re-
write me a prescription for some of those? Why be
ally been meaning to read and settle down to enjoy
merely sick when you can be suicidal, too?)
and savor it. That way, the receptionist will surely call them in seconds, or so the theory goes.
of those commercials suggests the drugs will make
In some ways, waiting rooms with cheesy
those who ingest them live happy, ecstatic lives with
magazines are representative of, and even a warm
days filled with sunlight, scenic vistas, butterflies,
and fuzzy connection to, the healthcare system to
unicorns, over-the-top exhilaration, and perfect
which we’ve become accustomed, a remnant to
families. Really? I thought that’s what illegal hallu-
hold on to even as the medical landscape is beset by
cinogens were for.
inevitable change. And change is the only thing of
old fashioned, but what’s with everybody wear-
Information on medical office buildings and the ACA.
14
Search algorithms, however, serve up no such
And how about medical dress codes? Call me
View trends in MOB development.
One medical-office worker, assistant, technician,
deprecation regarding doc-in-a-box, aside from the
If one can ignore the side effects, the imagery
Want more information? The resources below are linked in our digital magazine at cbpmagazine.com/digital/janfeb2015.
sonnel, designed to be simple, with minimal places
Now, doc-in-a-box isn’t an especially flattering
which we can be certain. — Kenneth W. Betz, Senior Editor, CBP
