title: Building better healthcare facilities through evidence-based design: breaking new ground at Vancouver Island Health Authority.
abstract: Many of today's healthcare facilities were constructed at least 50 years ago, and a growing number have outlived their useful lives. Despite renovations and renewals, they often fall short of providing an appropriate care setting. Clinicians and staff develop a mixture of compromises and workarounds simply to make things function. Evidence-based design principles are often absent from new healthcare facilities, perhaps because of lack of awareness of the principles or because implementing them may fall foul of short-term and short-sighted budgetary decisions. In planning a new healthcare facility in 2008, the executive team at Vancouver Island Health Authority decided to adopt the evidence-based design approach. They conducted site visits to newly constructed hospitals across North America and beyond, to determine best practices in terms of design and construction. These engagements resulted in the implementation of 102 evidence-based design principles and attributes in Victoria's Royal Jubilee hospital, a 500-bed Patient Care Centre. This $350M project was completed on time and on budget, showing that using evidence need not result in delays or higher costs. To date, the results of the evidence-based design are promising, with accolades coming from patients, staff and clinical partners, and a number of immediate and practical benefits for patients, families and care teams alike.
authors.affiliation: President and CEO of Vancouver Island Health Authority and an adjunct professor within the University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine.
authors.forename: Howard
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Waldner
authors.affiliation: Candidate in organisational behaviour at Warwick Business School (Coventry, UK).
authors.forename: Bart
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Senior fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and past president/CEO of Rady Children's Hospital (San Diego, CA).
authors.forename: Blair
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sadler
mesh_terms: D001955:British Columbia; D055317:Evidence-Based Practice; D006749:Hospital Design and Construction / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D062312:Islands