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Blending Healthcare And Hospitality To Thrive In The Post-COVID-19 Medical Landscape

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A new project in Flushing, New York, is slated for delivery in late 2021 and set to become a landmark for top-quality healthcare in the area.

The Eastern Mirage Medical Center, connected to the five-star Eastern Mirage Hotel, will help satisfy increased patient demand for state-of-the-art medical facilities, propelling the associated practices and medical institutions to enhance business growth.

This medical center represents the outcome of more than ten years of design and planning and incorporates the most advanced technology available to hospitals today — critical selling points considering the pressure physicians face in attracting and retaining high-income patients after a tumultuous year.

According to the developer, Fleet Financial Group’s Richard Xia, the concept of the Eastern Mirage Medical Center reveals the symbiotic relationship potential for medical offices and hospitality, creating a steady flow of travelers for the hotel as well as a more welcoming, hospitality-inspired setting for the medical office itself.

“Patients have raised the bar for their medical experiences,” said Xia. “Physicians and healthcare institutions that attune themselves to those needs and successfully blend hospitality and healthcare will remove barriers to growing their practice and find themselves in great demand.”

Here are three factors guiding the development of the Eastern Mirage Medical Center that every healthcare operation must take into account in order to remain competitive:

High-Tech Features That Support Patient Comfort And Connection 

A modern and futuristic medical environment reassures patients they’re in good hands and inspires confidence they’ve secured the top physicians in the field. However, few legacy buildings in the healthcare space can support truly high-tech renovations, and those that do cannot do so seamlessly.

High-tech features refer to much more than the latest computers and software. With truly integrated healthcare and hospitality, the building itself becomes a conductor of convenience, applying technology to the patient experience to make sure it is seamless, efficient, and comfortable.

The first example that came to mind for Xia was the Eastern Mirage Medical Center’s direct fiber optic connection, which enables lightning-fast data transmission between practitioners in the medical center and patients in the hotel as well as between practitioners themselves.

“With so many physicians shifting their patient data to the cloud, Internet speed and security has become a fundamental component of success,” explained Xia. “Faster and higher-quality connection and imaging means doctors can make a better assessment of their patient and deliver a more responsive, connected patient experience.”

At the Eastern Mirage Medical Center, integrated high-tech features include:

•5G Fiber optics directly wired into each office and connected to the hotel, offering physicians a high-speed, non-interrupted network connection from medical office to suite

• Facial and voice recognition security features for offices and elevators to create an almost completely touchless patient experience

• Full-capacity BMS system which offers unparalleled oversight and control over HVAC system, indoor air quality, and pressure

Human-Centric Amenities And Aesthetically Pleasing Design

Many physicians are surprised to learn that amenities can be a larger factor in driving traffic to hospitals than clinical quality. In fact, the design of a hospital and recovery environment can have a significant impact on everything related to patient recovery, including patient satisfaction, costs, infection, and outcomes —which is why there’s so much demand among patients for human-centric and aesthetically-pleasing hospital design.

The design of the Eastern Mirage Medical Center takes this research into account, ensuring doctors can provide their patients with a beautiful, modern, and relaxing building that inspires patient confidence. Modern medical centers like this take the work out of providing a flawless patient experience, with every detail thought-out in advance: stunning views, quiet solitude in the midst of a bustling city, and thoughtful, healthful food and dining experiences all in one space.

“We see beautiful architecture, design, and amenities directly contribute to the quality of medical services,” said Xia. “This gives patients the best possible experience while allowing doctors to justify the premium charges associated with their high-quality services and grow the prestige of their practices.”

A few of the architectural and design traits of the Eastern Mirage Medical Center include the following:

• Five-layer panoramic glass curtain wall with heat insulation, sound absorption (-51db) and light transmission to provide a gorgeous view of the city and very little noise pollution despite its convenient location near the LaGuardia Airport (LGA)

• Architecturally the tallest building in downtown Flushing, further distinguished by its striking glass curtain wall and high ceiling height ranging from 11ft to 14ft

• Safe and nontoxic recycling of environmentally friendly building materials, including Turkish marble whole-stone floor and Portugal limestone sinks

World-Class Hospitality, Comfort, And Privacy For High-Income Patients 

For physicians that serve high-income patients, the quality of the appointment, procedure, recovery, and visiting experiences is of utmost importance. But it’s almost impossible to meet those standards as a stand-alone or individual practice in a legacy or refurbished building — your discerning patients will never feel quite at home.

A luxury medical and recovery experience like the one at the Eastern Mirage Medical Center removes all of those barriers. Physicians plug-and-play their practices into an ecosystem of world-class hospitality, comfort, and privacy, without having to plan or develop it themselves.

“It’s very difficult to replicate a high-income patient’s high-end lifestyle away from home, but we’ve done it here,” said Xia. “The Eastern Mirage Medical Center allows medical professionals to offer their patients a private, restful place to recover from their appointments and procedures, with all the comforts of home and convenience of a world-class hotel.”

At the Eastern Mirage Medical Center, world-class hospitality and privacy features include:

• More than 300 private underground parking spaces and 4 barrier-free elevators to enhance the door-to-door service experience

•  Medical offices integrated with a self-operated, high-end hotel and Michelin-starred restaurant

• Unbeatable dining, entertainment, and leisure components including an above-ground fish tank pool and hotel-affiliated medical spa

• Over 34,000 SF of well-designed multifunction green outdoor space with privacy protection throughout the entire building

Secure A Place In The Future Of Healthcare

A new generation of technology is available to medical care providers, and a new generation of patients wants access to it. Physicians and medical practices that want a place in the future of healthcare must secure a facility like the Eastern Mirage Medical Center that meets patients’ high standards for visual aesthetics, hospitality, technology, and medical care.

Learn About the Eastern Mirage Medical Center 

Are you interested in elevating the quality and luxury of your patient experience? Call Compass Commercial at 844-896-9210 (toll-free), or click here to learn more about the Eastern Mirage Medical Center.

 

Source: Fierce Healthcare

Acceleration Of Telehealth Adoption Set To Reshape Healthcare Real Estate

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The next time you visit your physician, your appointment may very well be virtual from the comfort of your own home.

Telehealth, or telemedicine, was an emerging part of healthcare delivery long before COVID-19. Now, the pandemic has catapulted the concept into national awareness. Changes in insurance reimbursement have expanded the availability of telehealth, with new implications for healthcare real estate occupiers, owners and investors.

What does “telehealth” mean, exactly? It encompasses electronic, interactive services ranging from a simple phone call or email with a clinician to a virtual exam with a caregiver for the purpose of diagnosis, intervention or ongoing care management. It’s enabled by such platforms as Doxy.me and NextGen Healthcare that make it easy to accept payments or insurance information in conjunction with an appointment.

Despite the convenience and effectiveness of telehealth, and the growth of secure telehealth platforms over the past decades, its pre-pandemic use was limited because of insurer reimbursement restrictions, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) patient data privacy requirements, and practitioner concerns about malpractice.

However, when states began to enact stay-at-home orders in early March in response to the pandemic, telehealth gained new attention among policymakers as a solution to providing healthcare without further jeopardizing patient health. As a result, provisions in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act lifted restrictions on where, how and with whom Medicare patients can access virtual care.

For the first time ever, there may be a critical mass of patients and practitioners alike able to tap the benefits of telehealth, mostly substituting onsite appointments with simple e-visits. Now, Medicare patients can access telehealth services from their own homes and healthcare providers can deliver service from any healthcare facility. Telehealth visits can take place via any phone with audio/video capabilities, using common consumer platforms such as FaceTime and Skype. Also important, first-time patient visits via telehealth are now eligible for Medicare coverage, too. Any healthcare professionals eligible to bill Medicare for their services can now bill Medicare for telehealth services, too.

From Stopgap Service To Structural Change

The acceleration of telehealth adoption may have been forced out of necessity during the pandemic. However, its use will likely continue to grow even after the pandemic fades.

In the post-pandemic era, the ease, efficiency and convenience of telehealth care will increase patient commitment and retention, and potentially lead to more in-person appointments for follow-up care. Telehealth also improves compliance with prescribed treatment plans, including follow-through on required appointments.

Also critical, telehealth enables patients in even the most remote and underserved locations to access care. And, it may prove to be especially well-suited for remote management of long-term chronic conditions such as allergies, diabetes and multiple sclerosis, and for monitoring such treatments as infusions and pacemakers.

As medical technology continues to advance at a rapid pace, an increasingly sophisticated suite of implantable and wearable devices, or even robotic telemedicine carts, will enhance home monitoring and management capabilities. Healthcare providers who implement this device-enabled “hospital at home” concept can help patients maintain their long-term health safely.

Telehealth’s Impact On Healthcare Real Estate

Clearly, telehealth usage has surged in 2020 to occupy a much more prominent place within the care spectrum than ever before. However, it’s important to keep the trend in perspective. According to FAIR Health’s private healthcare insurance claims data, only 0.17 percent of all services, or less than one-fifth of 1 percent, were provided via telehealth in the first quarter of 2019. In 2020, first quarter usage jumped to about 7.5 percent of services. April and May usage—data is not yet available—is forecasted to be higher than previous months. Thus, while telehealth usage has grown dramatically, its role in the healthcare service delivery spectrum continues to be secondary.

Yet, the long term may reveal a different story. As healthcare providers look to drive down costs while boosting reimbursements, telehealth’s role will likely become more prominent. As a result, many healthcare providers will need to reconfigure their facilities to provide HIPAA-compliant, technology-enabled spaces for the provision of telehealth and remote health monitoring services.

In light of the telehealth trend, the following are four steps healthcare occupiers, owners and investors should consider for the future of their facilities:

Develop telehealth care provider suites. Although patients will be able to participate in telehealth calls and remote health monitoring at home, practitioners will still need space for calls or electronic communications, as well as for remote monitoring and diagnostic equipment. Medical office buildings could provide suites for technicians and nurses to virtually manage intensive care, emergency and home care patients, for example. These spaces would require Internet redundancy, appropriate lighting, screens and acoustics, and assured patient-caregiver privacy for HIPAA regulatory compliance.

Reconfigure public spaces. Even as healthcare providers transition more basic care and monitoring services to online delivery, patients will still need office visits for advanced treatments, extensive physical evaluations and for use of advanced diagnostic equipment. However, the pandemic already has led healthcare providers to rethink their waiting room management to allow for social distancing. For instance, some providers ask patients to wait in their cars rather than in the waiting room and use text messaging to alert patients of their appointments.

With widespread adoption of digital patient registration and text messaging, less waiting room space will be needed even after the pandemic. An onsite kiosk, for example, could be used by patients to register upon entry, and possibly could support healthcare service delivery in other ways.

Reconfigure and repurpose healthcare delivery spaces. Many facilities will require interior reconfigurations, renovations and build-outs to support the transition to telehealth services. The adoption of telehealth care delivery will likely reduce the number of physical exam rooms needed in a healthcare facility and will free up square footage for other purposes. With less space required for physical exams, facilities can prioritize space for high-value imaging, diagnostics, injectables, wound care, advanced and acute treatments, obstetrics and laboratory services.

Pursuing The Possibilities Of Telehealth

As pandemic-related financial losses continue to mount across the healthcare sector, telehealth offers the potential to provide efficient, effective patient care while maximizing productivity-per-square-foot of healthcare real estate. For some healthcare providers, telehealth adoption could dramatically reduce the need for office space or increase the need for different kinds of spaces, depending on the services provided. Whatever the situation, healthcare providers, owners and investors have always been adept at adaptation—and many are already positioned to pursue the possibilities of telehealth.

 

Source: GlobeSt

2019 Healthcare Facility Design Trend Predictions

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Healthcare Design is an ever-evolving topic as systems must continuously adapt to meet complex regulations, reduce operating expenses, integrate emerging technologies, keep up with the quickly changing, consumer-driven landscape, and deliver world-class care to their communities.

E4H Environments for Health Architecture, partners closely with health systems to develop an approach to these diverse challenges. The following is a list of national design trends that the firm developed that will impact the healthcare design industry in 2019.

Designing for Resiliency 

Healthcare facilities function 24/7 which requires them to be sustainably designed in order to maximize resources and reduce energy use/costs. With global warming’s effects quickly shifting the dynamics of our geography, the need for resiliency has made its way to the forefront of design discussions. How will the physical facility perform in the face of a natural or man-made disaster? What is the role of a hospital building to provide shelter and care to a community ravaged by a hurricane, flooding or wildfires? Can our buildings continue to function when all the municipal systems (water, power, sanitary services) around them are compromised? What protects the safety of patients and staff when there’s an active shooter on the premises?

These questions help us think beyond the standard disaster-preparedness drills to ensure the designs we develop thoughtfully address the needs of patients, staff, and their community in a time of unprecedented stress. New operational protocols require new plans, different physical barriers, and an innovative approach to the use of materials. Many E4H projects have been impacted by natural disasters such as Hurricane Sandy, this year’s Hurricane Michael in Florida, and the 7.0 Magnitude Earthquake in Alaska.

The Expanding Role of Genomics in Healthcare 

Genomic research is impacting many fields of medical research and is emerging as a key disruptor in healthcare delivery and patient treatment. With rapid technological advances and decreasing costs associated with DNA sequencing, a more accessible diagnostic tool, genomic research has provided a new lens into difficult-to-diagnose and rare diseases

Additionally, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), a mature molecular technology, is being refined through improved techniques, new assays, and much higher throughput capabilities than ever before. We are seeing more molecular testing being done in the clinical lab, with many hospitals creating entirely new Molecular Pathology departments. This genomic data is opening the doors to greater predictability of drug efficacy, an increase in personalized medicine and targeted therapies, resulting in improved patient outcomes. E4H clients such as the Dana Farber Cancer Institute are at the frontier of translational medicine in healthcare.

AI and Virtual Healthcare 

Healthcare delivery has spent the last decades working to transform a process that is heavily dependent on data, and make it work smarter. Hospitals and health systems have been working hard to convert and optimize their databases to improve patient care and streamline processes. Artificial Intelligence is now poised to become the next evolution of healthcare data management, analysis and prediction.

The ability of AI to analyze data and predict outcomes and trends will have impacts not only in the clinical fields, but also operational and the physical environments. AI has already begun to demonstrate its ability to assist clinicians with diagnosis and prevention of medical errors. As this technology matures, it will have a profound impact both on care delivered at healthcare sites and in the virtual realm allowing for more informed diagnosis, smarter monitoring and alerts, and outcome predictions based on patient specific data. As facilities incorporate AI into their operations, it will allow them to look at the effect of the environment on patient, staff, and materials movements. Which will provide them with the opportunity to refine their operations through scheduling to enhance throughput and eliminate waste. This insight will help better inform changes to the physical environment to better suit their needs based on the data that they are able to extract about the flow of material and people within their walls.

AI will provide facilities with the ability to better predict their needs for supplies and deliveries such as medical supplies, food, linens, pharmaceuticals and energy based on patient scheduling. This will help facilities further reduce the costly footprint of onsite storage through better managed just-in-time deliveries.

Due to the growing need for patient data and medical records to be shared across a network of healthcare entities, blockchain integrations systems have seen a push in digital health as well. Blockchain has the potential to revolutionize healthcare by allowing the sharing and analysis of critical patient data in real time to improve quality of care. Blockchain also increases the ease of information sharing between healthcare providers and patient, thus making data much more secure which allows facilities to better manage their inter administration and IT workflows. It is vital for healthcare systems to become aware of the increased efficiency new technologies can quickly implement, for not only healthcare providers but for all end users alike.

Post-Surgery Accommodations 

Health systems are constantly looking for ways to decrease operating expenses. One popular method is to alleviate the real estate footprint. This can be accomplished by moving administrative staff and outpatient services to off campus locations. A newer, growing trend is to move recovering patients off site to a nearby location where transportation is provided to and from the hospital if need be. This model is a convenient option for the patient, caregiver and provider. This allows for the patient and their family to have a sense of privacy, improving the patient experience as well as the rate of recovery.

Memorial Sloan Kettering’s 75th Street Patient Residence accommodates patients with blood cancers and disorders as well as patients receiving a bone marrow transplant. The residence offers fully furnished apartments with on-site concierge services to assist with care coordination. Transportation to and from Memorial Hospital is available.

Wellness Integration 

With the healthcare industry shifting its focus to preventative, population health, wellness has gained significant momentum over the last several years. Wellness incorporates the entire body and all systems as why functional medicine is the science of health, focused on the person and restoring the body’s natural metabolic processes; where traditional medicine is focused on disease. Wellness is an integral part of delivering holistic healthcare.

As reimbursement continues to shift to a model that encourages preventative healthcare, we are seeing a shift in not only delivery of care but the physical aspects of the hospitals themselves. This growing trend can be seen in healthcare facilities across the country in the form of community gyms, yoga studios, and dietary kitchens fully loaded with cooking classes. This allows the health systems to make use of unused space, keep patients engaged and accountable for their healthcare by providing other interactions besides checkups and/or emergency situations. This shift provides an opportunity for the hospital to build relationships with the community. Many E4H clients offer nutritional services, full gyms, and community programs to promote wellness such as Covenant Health Lifestyle Centre in Lubbock,TX.

Boutique Medical Centers 

There are two primary factors driving the rise of boutique specialty care centers, or precision medicine, nation-wide. One, a new and unique generation of informed healthcare consumers who expect quality, convenience and customization for all their needs, the other an advancing platform of technologies permitting providers a greater range of services bundled at a single point of care.

Millennials prioritize the enrichment of their health, lifestyles and experiences. Their decisions are based off quick and convenient platforms such as Google reviews, Yelp, Zocdoc, and several others that allow consumers to select a facility based off reviews vs a physician referral. Millennials are quick to express unmet expectations which has caused the healthcare systems to expand their service offerings. This new generation responds more readily to a successfully branded, boutique environments of clinical care.

Convenience is a pillar of retail success which suggests that healthcare systems will have to pivot in order to thrive in this arena. Healthcare providers are trying to diversify, differentiate and deliver their product distinctly to stay competitive. Fortunately, advances in technology and flexible design, have afforded clinical providers the means to offer broader ranged and more complex services in a single exam or treatment room; services that may have previously necessitated multiple visits to multiple locations. E4H projects such as the Hospital for Special Surgery Orthopedic Center Of Excellence in Palm Beach, FL offer full diagnostics services, ambulatory surgery, rehabilitation, and sports performance programs in one location.

 

Source: PRWeb