PART 1

Today I’m joined by Lisa Bonnet, Senior Interior Designer at the prestigious e4h –  Environments for Health Architecture – a global architecture firm committed exclusively to the design of innovative health facilities.

We discuss what’s it’s like to provide comfort to someone in a difficult situation or help someone celebrate a health milestone through the design of the hospital space.

Lisa shares how far healthcare design has come in the last ten years with the story of how one husband had to sleep on the floor of the hospital room in an older labor and delivery unit where his wife just gave birth, because it was the only thing available.

“The challenges of healthcare design are often like putting together a puzzle”, Lisa says, and it’s one of her favorite aspects of the work. Learn more about Lisa Bonnet and e4h architecture by visiting http://www.e4harchitecture.com/.

Thank you to our industry partner The Center For Health Design! Learn more about how CHD can support your firm by visiting: http://healthdesign.org.

And to the American Association of Healthcare Interior Designers, thank you for your support of this program. Enhance your professional credibility by earning the Certified Healthcare Interior Design credential. Visit https://aahid.org/ for more info.

In PART 1 of this episode you will learn:

• The perception of healthcare design is changing from sterile applications to comfort, beauty and creativity all within hospital and healthcare code requirements. This is making healthcare a more attractive career choice for new designers just out of design school.
• Where Lisa finds her design inspiration, including the last time she was pumping gas at a gas station.
• The story of how a husband in a labor and delivery unit wanted to sleep with his wife in the hospital room, and near his new born child, and the only thing the nurse could offer him was a blanket and the floor.
• The challenges of putting together what sometimes feels like a puzzle is one of Lisa’s favorite aspects of healthcare design and how to put all those moving parts together in a design.
• Encouraging flexibility and fostering communication between the owner and the general contractor and the design team is a key factor to working through onsite issues.
• How e4h makes each facility unique according to their geographical location.
• How planning experts and partners of e4h will engage the town or city surrounding the hospital during the research phase of the project to get their buy in.
• What advice Lisa has for new healthcare designers who are not that empathetic in nature but want to be.
• An insider’s view of e4h’s design user group meetings and the best ways to engage participants.
• Why part of the role as the designer is to get staff thinking about how to improve work-flow.
• When Lisa got laid off from her first design job at a hospitality design firm, fate stepped in and pointed her towards healthcare design.
• How the e4h team designs for “onstage” and “offstage” areas in the medical space and how this is very similar to hospitality design.

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PART 2

In the second part of my conversation with Lisa Bonnet, Senior Interior Designer at the prestigious e4h –  Environments for Health Architecture, Lisa discusses the advancements in surface products in the hospital space that have contributed to the reduction of Hospital-Acquired Infections.

In older hospitals, countertops around sinks have traditionally been unhygienic areas where bacteria and other icky stuff tend to hang out.

As Lisa shares, research has shown that with the introduction of revolutionary products like seamless, solid surface and antibacterial countertops that can be shaped and curved to meet the aesthetic and code requirements of the hospital and the design team, HAI’s have been significantly reduced.

Lisa wrote an article about this subject in Medical Construction and Design Magazine entitled, How Sterile is Too Sterile? She unpacks that article more here in part 2 of the episode. Read the article here:https://mcdmag.epubxp.com/i/853600-jul-aug-2017/22?m4= To learn more about Lisa Bonnet and e4h architecture visit: http://www.e4harchitecture.com/.

Thank you to our industry partner The Center For Health Design! Learn more about how CHD can support your firm by visiting: http://healthdesign.org.

And to the American Association of Healthcare Interior Designers, thank you for your support of this program. Enhance your professional credibility by earning the Certified Healthcare Interior Design credential. Visit http://aahid.orgfor more info.

In PART 2 of this episode you will learn:

• Some of the biggest successes are in some of the smallest details on a project.
• How e4h studies ALL the nuances of a project, for example, where the patient’s empty suitcase is placed in the hospital room, so it is out of the staff’s way.
• In the 90’s, the industry started using products that had soft, organic textures and wood look products to provide more of a hospitality or residential aesthetic. That is still common today as a result of patient input and competition among hospitals that desire this aesthetic.
• How seamless, solid surface and antibacterial countertops that can be shaped and curved to meet the aesthetic and code requirements of the hospital and the design team have significantly helped reduce Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI’s).
• The evolution of hospitals embracing the patient-centered design is the direct result of input from many stakeholders including patients, infection prevention specialists, the environmental services team
• Why Lisa’s current favorite project is a long term acute rehab facility which includes the design of a new breakfast area near a nurse’s station, and how this solves a very big problem for staff and patients.
• What a critical success factor looks like in e4h projects.
• How evidence-based design has been proven to improve the health of patients and staff, and how this is a fundamental passion of the team at e4h.
• What it’s like to work at a global architecture firm committed exclusively to the design of innovative health facilities.
• How technology continues to play a bigger role in healthcare design.