What’s more, devices such as ceiling-mounted lift systems can ease staff workloads and keep caregivers off injured reserve. These devices are highly effective with critically ill patients who, for example, might need to be repositioned every two hours to prevent pneumonia from developing. Traditionally, that task required six staff members to assemble in the room every two hours to roll the patient—all the while risking back injury. With a lift system, one or two staff members can roll a patient, or move a patient to and from the bed to a chair or the bathroom.

“The lift diminishes the patient’s potential for falling, and, from a staff perspective, it prevents many, many injuries,” Zborowsky says. “Now, we’ve taken care of two problems with one piece of equipment.”

It all adds up to a new generation of health care facilities designed to encourage personnel to stay happily inside, and enable patients and families to exit quickly and healthily.

“How do we use the research we have to build better buildings and create environments that are holistic and healing for the patients, families, and staff that occupy them?” Zborowsky says. “That’s really where we start talking with our clients today.”


Going Green?

In fall of 2006, Fairview Health Systems opened what at the time was only Minnesota’s third “green” medical facility. The Fairview Bass Lake Clinic was certified green through the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Fairview’s Bass Lake Clinic
“This was our first attempt at getting that certification,” says Ray Piirainen, Fairview’s director of real estate. The Bass Lake Clinic and other green-aspiring facilities receive credits for employing various building features and processes that promote human and environmental health, such as using recycled building materials, incorporating a light-colored roof to reduce heat transfer, and enhancing the indoor environment by adding windows to bring in more daylight and improve outdoor views.

Even so, Rick Hintz, a LEED-certified architect and a health care specialist for Perkins + Will, says that though health care organizations in Minnesota are focused on building safer, healthier facilities, they’ve yet to firmly commit to green building design—a seemingly natural fit for next-generation health care facilities. “We’re doing green design for health care around the country, but it has been slow to be adopted by the health care market here,” Hintz says. “Usually, the reluctance stems from not understanding it—yet.”

Terri Zborowsky, director of health care education and research for Ellerbe Becket, predicts that adoption rates will climb as health care organizations become more comfortable with green concepts. “I think we’re making good strides,” she says. “More and more of our clients are asking for it.”

HealthPartners, for example, favors architectural firms that have LEED-certified architects on staff, according to Kathy Standing, the company’s senior director of facility development and space planning. Park Nicollet Health Services, meanwhile, is considering attaining green certification for its new cancer center in St. Louis Park and a few other facilities, reports Duane Spiegle, vice president of real estate and support services. “It makes sense—improving the health of the environment as well as the patient,” he says.

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