Two professors from the UK College of Design School of Interiors worked with UK HealthCare and GBBN Architects to evaluate the Albert B. Chandler Hospital’s design.

The UK Emergency Department also worked with the faculty members and the Cincinnati, Ohio company to determine how well the current hospital Emergency Department design works for patients.

In order to design better spaces down the road, students and faculty from the School of Interiors used observations, surveys, focus groups and physical measurements to evaluate the area, according to an article on UKNow by UK Public Relations information specialist Whitney Hale.

Staff members and graduate and undergraduate students worked in teams of two for about 200 total hours, said associate professor in the School of Interiors Lindsey Fay in the article.

The pediatric care center, trauma unit and imaging unit designs were best-received, according to the finished data. The hospital’s use of “pods,” or collections of patients’ rooms around a central nursing center, also allowed staff members to remain close to their patients.

The dedicated pediatric center, which has 12 beds inside and distractors like an interactive wall, computers and a TV for children, was also rated highly, according to the article.

The students and faculty also interviewed hospital staff and found that the inability to see the intake area in the hospital from other locations needed to be improved.

Another area that appeared problematic was the need for people to cut through patient rooms to get from the emergency department to the patient service area in the triage area of the hospital.

The School of Interiors held a one-day workshop with GBBN to look at the issues they identified. The researchers and architects presented possible solutions for the areas they determined could be improved.

Findings from the research have been published in HERD Journal and the Journal of Learning Spaces and have been presented twice at the Healthcare Design Conference in San Diego, Calif., according to the article.

STAFF REPORT