Recognizing the need to provide comprehensive, cost-effective healthcare services in rural areas and other under-served communities, SRG’s Critical Access Hospital prototype is designed to make the greatest possible impact on the community it serves, even within a modest budget. It can be modified for each new site to reflect the needs, financial constraints, and identity of that community. In the face of today’s healthcare challenges, the survival of Critical Access Hospitals and the health of the communities they serve requires designers and hospital administrators to rethink entrenched design methodologies and operational procedures to ensure successful outcomes. Our prototype intends to be a catalyst for that change.
Critical Access Hospital, Efficiency, Flexibility, Healthcare, Healthy Environment, Hospital, Patient Care, Prototype
Program Organization
Program Organization
Program Adjacencies and Flow Diagram
Siting Exploration Idea 1
Siting Exploration Idea 2, Floor 1
Siting Exploration Idea 2, Floor 2
Creating a hospital environment that supports the medical staff’s needs is the best way to ensure successful patient outcomes. There are often opportunities within the building program and layout to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the hospital’s medical team, while also reducing the long-term operational costs for energy and building maintenance.
By designing a healthy environment that reduces stress and instills a sense of pride in the medical staff, a new hospital can be integral to convincing the best talent to choose a Critical Access Hospital for their career. Good design improves the empathy, efficiency, and precision of care for staff, which will in turn enhance the relationship between caregivers and patients.
Telemedicine and ongoing advances in technology enable today’s Critical Access Hospitals to continually improve and broaden the services they can offer to the community. We are exploring how to make hospitals more adaptable and flexible in the face of these changes, which will be key to integrating resilience, relevance, and longevity into the building design.
Backed by research and our experience, we know that interior design can influence a patient’s ability to heal. This prototype is designed to create environments that reduce stress and anxiety, maximize interior daylight, provide views to nature, connect with outdoor spaces, and are safe for patients and staff. Successful patient experiences and outcomes help ensure long-term success of the hospital.
Our years of experience in the design of hospitals has proven that healthcare delivery is a dynamic and constantly changing profession. This is largely due to breakthroughs in medical research, facility obsolescence, changes in reimbursement and market forces, in addition to evolving technologies mentioned above. Designing flexibility into our hospital projects is a high priority for SRG. Using an activities-based approach to programming, we look at how spaces can accommodate more than one activity wherever possible to improve overall building efficiency and reduce cost. In spaces that must be designed for a specific use, such as operating rooms, imaging suites, and patient nursing rooms, we organize these high-cost spaces so that growth is easily accommodated with facility additions or renovations.
