Case Study: Long-Term Value on a VAMC Healthcare Campus A Deeper Look Healthcare design projects - whether new construction or renovation are complex by nature Coordinating the multiple code requirements, infrastructure, equipment and personnel needs, while maintaining a safe and clean environment for the patients is a part of any project on a hospital campus. We believe there is no better way to provide our clients with a successful project than to become an extension of the in-house facilities team and understand the hospital’s mission and business goals from the very start of any engagement. Our process helps define the project goals and we work diligently with the end users to design for success. Array has many long standing clients where we enjoy that relationship. The challenge is how to get that relationship started from the first engagement with a new facility. This case study is a recent example of how Array successfully transitioned from consultant to trusted team member for a hospital client.
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Case Study: Long-Term Value on a VAMC Healthcare Campus
A Deeper LookHealthcare design projects - whether new construction or renovation are complex by nature Coordinating the multiple code requirements, infrastructure, equipment and personnel needs, while maintaining a safe and clean environment for the patients is a part of any project on a hospital campus. We believe there is no better way to provide our clients with a successful project than to become an extension of the in-house facilities team and understand the hospital’s mission and business goals from the very start of any engagement. Our process helps define the project goals and we work diligently with the end users to design for success. Array has many long standing clients where we enjoy that relationship. The challenge is how to get that relationship started from the first engagement with a new facility.
This case study is a recent example of how Array successfully transitioned from consultant to trusted team member for a hospital client.
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EXPERTISE
Federal healthcare facilities have an important mission and face many challenges as they strive
to provide the most appropriate care to their patients. The Veterans Administration is charged
with offering a range of services which rival the best private and research-based institutions, while
fighting the stigma associated with historical perceptions.
Veterans who receive their healthcare at Veterans Affairs Medical Centers can be assured of a
high-level of care from clinical staff trained in the specialties veterans seek most - Behavioral
Health, Emergency Care, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Primary Care and Vocational
Rehabilitation.
Between the country’s aging WWII and Vietnam-era service men and women, and the young troops
returning from the Middle East, the VA has a diverse population to serve. Care is often sought on an
outpatient basis, and the Department of Veterans Affairs is diligently preparing their aging facilities
to be more accessible and provide a greater range of ambulatory services. The VA’s Community
Living Center service line, where veterans can living in an assisted-living style arrangement, often
on a VAMC campus, is also growing.
Click here to read an article by Array Senior Planner, Lisa Lipschutz, on the VA’s efforts to increase and enhance services available to women veterans.
CAMPUS KNOWLEDGE
CHALLENGE
A Veteran Affairs Medical Center is implementing several patient focused improvements to their busy campus. An aging facility, limited capital funding and competing priorities caused their senior leadership and facilities personnel to make facility improvement choices based on the most sought-after services.
SOLUTION
By being open to creative design solutions that took advantage of under-utilized spaces, the Medical Center gained more accessible and higher through-put outpatient departments to allow them to serve more veterans with a variety of specialties.
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OVERVIEW
At a Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Central Pennsylvania, Array is part of a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business team. As part of the planning and design process, the team spends time understanding the infrastructure and business drivers at the beginning of each project, and how that project will connect to adjacent and related services.
The projects outlined on the following pages illustrate the Discovery and Analysis done by the team as they collaborated with user groups and studied volume and census data to develop optimal designs. With ease of access and the patient’s comfort level as top priorities, creative options such as new entrances and larger departments were achieved.
“Our goal as designers of this facility is to ‘raise the bar’ for this hospital - for our Veteran patients and staff - to create a healthy environment that reduces stress and promotes healing. Not simply to update what is here now, but to build something far better using imagination and ingenuity. This goal will be accomplished through an ambitious construction plan in place with firms like Array Architects who use a team approach, engaging the client, patients and staff, to capture what is fundamentally important, introduce thought-provoking design concepts and enhance the healthcare spaces with creative design vision.” - Suzette Poletti, LEED GA
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Once the optimal site for the CLC was determined, discussions on
how the CLC could be linked to the main hospital via an enclosed
walkway commenced so physical connectivity and continuation of
services between buildings would not be hampered. The enclosed
walkway option appealed to the VA as a way to encourage CLC
residents to utilize the VA’s available on-campus health services as
an extension of the CLC community and helped the VA sole source
kitchen, housekeeping, pharmacy and other services directly from
the main hospital.
ONCOLOGY SERVICES
The intent of this project is to provide a larger infusion space and
waiting area as well as increase exam rooms, offices and support
space. The oncology program includes 12 infusion bays, three exam
rooms for general oncology patients, one bone marrow exam room,
nurse station, medication room, clinical workrooms and a family
zone. The Waiting/Reception area will be enlarged and shared by
the adjacent GI and Short Procedure Units.
WOMEN’S SERVICES
This renovation project provides a dedicated entrance and
expanded women’s services. Among important project
requirements were flexibility and privacy. Two key design changes
to the current building were proposed and accepted; shifting the
central hospital corridor to provide a contiguous Women’s Clinic
and moving the Clinic’s entry to separate it from the main hospital
entrance. Combined, these design changes helped the VA 1) provide
a greater level of privacy for female veterans; 2) group like services
together; and, 3) improve wayfinding from the hospital entrance.
Who We AreARRAY-ARCHITECTS.COM
We Are Healthcare Architects
We are a team of architects and designers with unique backgrounds, but we all have one thing in common - we share a strong desire to use our expertise and knowledge to design solutions that will help people in moments that matter most.
This focus makes us leaders in our field. There’s a degree of compassion, empathy, and sensitivity that goes into every project that we touch. It’s designing a nurse station with sight lines to every patient. It’s building a Behavioral Health facility without corners, so that patients are safe. It’s translating the operational needs through the technical details to fine tune the lighting system in a neonatal unit so caregivers can match the lighting to each baby’s stage of development. It is a deeper understanding, honed through relationships spanning
decades.
Together, we discover optimal solutions with our clients. It is our four decades of specialization that allows for effective communication, collaboration and precision in the complex, changing world of healthcare.
Array’s Knowledge Communities
We believe strongly in sharing our expertise and knowledge with others. We invite you to explore each of our thought leaders and share your thoughts with the healthcare design community.
Click here to visit our blog.
Click hereto view a sampling of our Veterans Affairs projects