Designing Healthcare Spaces To Be More Inclusive

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Humanizing healthcare environments can improve both patient and staff wellbeing and is an essential consideration in the design of healthcare spaces.

Often, though, hospital designs might cater to the needs of patients but overlook the need for a safe and rejuvenating workplace that serves its staff too.

A research report on the topic of Design Matters for Nurses: Hospital Design For Nurse Attraction And Retention (HASSELL with University of Melbourne, May 2016) states:

“Aesthetics and maintenance of a workplace serve as a daily reminder of the value their employees place on their work. Nurses have identified a number of environmental qualities that affect their daily work experience, including temperature, noise, odor and color, but the main factors were access to natural light and maintenance.”

The report also notes that nurses often complain about the general lack of space away from patient work.

“The underestimated value of staff may be more significant than hospital management perceives, commented Michaela Sheahan, senior design researcher at HASSELL in a recent comment piece for Indesign magazine. “But this can be rectified with a renewed focus on the hospital as a workplace, as well as a place to treat patients.”

For instance, creating comfortable areas for meal breaks could provide relief from the high-intensity work that hospital staff members have to face every day. Outdoor dining areas for staff members can bring about a sense of enjoyment around mealtimes, creating a substantial distinction between work and break areas.

Dedicated spaces for documentation tasks with proper ergonomic support could help reduce strain and fatigue. Even the inclusion of large windows that bring in natural lighting could help impact patient healing and staff wellbeing.

Another emerging trend is using biophilic design principles to craft a more soothing indoor experience. Think improved ventilation, acoustic comfort, enhanced natural lighting, external natural views and the use of natural materials, patterns and colours.

By humanizing healthcare spaces through biophilia there is potential to empower patients, aid recovery, reduce stress and improve the emotional wellbeing of staff, in turn creating a more helpful, healing environment.

A timely example is the Royal Adelaide Hospital, designed by Silver Thomas Hanley in a joint venture with DesignInc. Planned around landscaped courtyards, the hospital has been conceptualized as a park within a hospital.

Perhaps it is worth exploring the idea of design that caters to both the patient and members of staff within a healthcare facility. It is, after all, in a healthcare organization’s best interests to have a happy and healthy team who love coming in to work and are fully invested in their duties.

 

Source: Architecture & Design

The Dry Creek Medical Office Building In Englewood, Colorado, Acquired For $15.6M

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Broe Real Estate Group (BREG), a private real estate investment firm and affiliate of The Broe Group, headquartered in Denver, Colorado, confirmed the $15.6M acquisition of a 57,257 square foot medical pavilion located on 4.23 acres at 125 Inverness Drive East, Englewood, Colorado.

Constructed in 2000, the three-story multi-specialty medical building located in Arapahoe County is uniquely located proximate to four greater Denver area hospitals including Sky Ridge Medical Center (3.4 miles), Centennial Medical Plaza (2.3 miles), Medical Center of Aurora (7.5 miles) and Littleton Adventist Hospital (6.2 miles). The property is an attractive, off-campus medical office asset located in a well-established suburban office and residential hub within one of the fastest growing metropolitan regions in the United States.

“This acquisition is the latest example of our medical office building repositioning strategy,” says BREG CEO Doug Wells. “As a local operator, the BREG team is well-suited to address pending tenant roll and secure strong long-term occupancy. By investing significant capital in physical upgrades and leasing costs and executing a focused asset management program, we will ensure that our tenants can continue to deliver the needed medical services for Coloradans that live and work in south Denver’s rapidly growing region.”

The Dry Creek Medical Office Building marks BREG‘s fourth major MOB repositioning project in the past twelve months totaling nearly 540,000 square feet. Medical assets continue to play a major role in BREG’s Western United States acquisition strategy as it continues to assess opportunities with viable institutional medical exits.

Chris Bodnar and Lee Asher from CBRE Healthcare Capital Markets listed the property for sale.

“Market demand for non-hospital medical services is at an all-time high and Colorado’s population growth continues to exceed national growth rate. Dry Creek Medical Office Building is an institutional quality asset within a highly established, high growth market,” noted Chris Bodnar, CBRE Vice Chairman.

 

Source: Yahoo! Finance

Welltower Sells Senior Living Portfolio for $1.8B; Signs $1B Development Deal

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Healthcare REIT Welltower has signed a $1 billion development agreement with Discovery Senior Living, as well as acquired a handful of facilities from the company along with a 6-building, 270,000 square foot medical office campus for $140 million from Summit Medical Group.

The exclusive development agreement focuses on two new projects that the companies are currently reviewing. That, however, is just one piece of a number of agreements struck by the two companies, which have a pre-existing relationship.

“We are excited by the opportunity to expand a key operator relationship,” said Welltower’s Chief Investment Officer Shankh Mitra, in prepared remarks.

Among its agreements, Welltower has:

– Sold its stake in the Benchmark Senior Living portfolio for $1.8 billion. Benchmark has recapitalized the portfolio with private institutional capital. The 4,137-unit seniors housing portfolio consists of 48 assisted living properties located in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, and had $24 million of secured debt that was extinguished at closing.

– Made an off-market acquisition of three infill seniors housing campuses that are located in the Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio metro areas. The portfolio, recently developed by South Bay was acquired for $216 million, or $280,000 per unit, through a newly formed joint venture between Discovery and Welltower. Once the last phase of the Alliance Town Center development in Dallas-Fort Worth opens in the fourth quarter of 2019, the total cost of the portfolio will be $237 million, or $273,000 per unit. In-place occupancy throughout the recently built portfolio (excluding the last phase of the Alliance Town Center) was 72% upon acquisition.

– Gone under contract to fund three newly opened assets located within Discovery’s core footprint in Florida for $92.7 million, or $255,000 per unit. These three buildings achieved certificates of occupancy in the second quarter of 2019. “All of these assets, including those that are under contract, are steel and concrete construction and represent a significant discount to Discovery transactions we have seen in the marketplace recently,” Mitra says.

– Entered into a definitive purchase agreement to purchase a 43-acre, 6-building, 270,000 square foot medical office campus in Berkeley Heights, NJ for $140 million. The campus will be master leased by Summit Medical Group, an independent multispecialty medical practice, under a new 20-year, absolute net lease. This campus is the largest and most comprehensive of five “hubs” in Summit’s 80-location hub-and-spoke model, and will bring Welltower’s total Summit-leased footprint to over 500,000 square feet. The sale is expected to close in the third quarter of 2019, subject to customary closing conditions. The sale of the medical office campus is conditioned upon Summit’s recently announced intended merger with CityMD.

– Acquired a six-community portfolio located in the Denver and Boulder metro areas from Colorado-based Balfour Senior Living for $308 million. The portfolio includes Balfour’s downtown Denver flagship community, Riverfront Park, and the recently developed Lavender Farms, which opened in April. As part of the portfolio purchase, Welltower has received exclusivity on Balfour’s future acquisition and development pipeline, as well as an option to acquire up to a 34.9% interest in Balfour’s management company. Several development initiatives are currently underway in East Coast markets, rapidly expanding the existing relationship between Welltower and Balfour.

 

Source: GlobeSt.