STUDENT PATHWAYS OF DISCOVERY: DETERMINING HOW THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT MAY AFFECT ENVIRONMENT OF CARE IN DESIGN SOLUTIONS

One of the objectives in an upper level independent commercial studio was for students to determine how the built environment may affect environment of care. After initially laying the foundation in evidenced based design, space planning, and basic fundamentals of design for healthcare settings, students were asked to discover for themselves how design affects environment of care. The Environment of Care is made up of three elements: The building of the space and its layout, the equipment used to support patient care or to safely operate the building/space, and the people which includes staff, patients, and anyone else who enters the space. All three of these elements have a role in minimizing risks in the environment, including those associated with safety and security, fire, hazardous materials and waste, medical equipment, and utility systems [1] [2]. Sometimes it is the patient’s view of his or her health care delivery that correlates with outcome or satisfaction in the built environment [3]. Patient centered care is often defined by an individual’s environment of care. To this end, a medium scale outpatient clinic was used as the site for the student’s pathways to discovery. The upper level students were required to make observations of movement, individual behaviors and post occupancy evaluations and apply studio lecture, readings and design theory to the information they gathered. More importantly, ideation, concept, and design development for the final design solution were to be determined after the observations. Outcome summary for the design studio were that the students used the data to identify failures in layout, inconsistencies in planning, universal design, and omissions in usability to make design recommendations for a more effective project solution. Deliverables were the final studio project, construction documents, PowerPoint's and graphics illustrating what they had determined.

References:
[1] https://www.healthdesign.org/sites/default/files/Facilities%20Inspection%20Checklist.pdf
[2] The Center for Health Design. (2012). About EDAC. Retrieved from http://www.healthdesign.org/edac/about
[3] http://m.healthaffairs.org/blog/2012/01/24/patient-centered-care-what-it-means-and-how-to-get-there/