Designing today's hospital for the future.
About 8,000 visitors each day are treated to the serene beauty of a four-story, sky-lit atrium, decorated with maple and cherrywood walls, flowering plants, towering evergreens, two fountains, and river-patterned porcelain tile that flows along the entryway. This is the entrance to Genesys Regional Medical Center-Health Park in Grand Blanc, Mich., often mistaken for a hotel. When designing the new 379-bed inpatient hospital, Genesys envisioned a facility that reflected a peaceful, comforting, homelike setting for patients and visitors. This vision, inspired by the spiritual values of the Sisters of St. Joseph, the Genesys sponsors, is now a reality. Having a vision and making it happen, however, was no small undertaking, says author Mark Harris of Genesys Health System. The labor-intensive, evolutionary process took several years and thousands of people. In this article, Harris describes many of the building project considerations involved in designing a hospital of the future.
Harris
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Genesys Health System, USA.
D001107:Architectural Accessibility; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D006745:Hospital Bed Capacity, 300 to 499; D006749:Hospital Design and Construction; D007374:Interior Design and Furnishings; D008824:Michigan; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D010362:Patients' Rooms