MILWAUKEE, WI – The signs are up, the art is hung, and the ribbon has been cut to mark the opening today of the 12-story, 425,000 sf patient tower tower expansion for Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. Children’s CFO Tim Birkenstock calls the new tower “an essential step needed to keep pace with our patient service demands” for one of the country’s busiest pediatric medical centers, with more than 25,000 inpatient admissions each year.

The new facility, which began construction in 2005, features a larger pediatric intensive care unit and an expanded Herma Heart Center, as well as patient rooms integrated with the latest medical technologies. Responding to the important role ...[more]

While ADA standards for accessible design strive to provide persons with disabilities the same ease of use and access in a building as a person without disability, they do not take into account the needs of the visually impaired. Unlike patients who are blind, those with low vision have limited sight, and must deal with difficulties that include lack of depth perception, clarity, and the ability to distinguish foreground and background.

To accommodate this patient population, in addition to meeting ADA accessibility requirements related to mobility, the toilet rooms at the Vision Rehabilitation Center (VRC) at Mass Eye and Ear had to address these challenges.

It was clear from the ...[more]

What are the trade-offs when you design a patient bathroom? How do you navigate the balancing act of optimizing patient safety and ADA compliance?

Healthcare principal Jennifer Aliber discusses these in “Safety zone: designing the danger out of patient bathrooms” in the September issue of Health Facilities Management magazine.

The article also features two sidebars: one by Cindy Lee on bathroom design for the visually impaired and one by Ray Gerbi  on infection control.

“Safety Zone,” Health Facilities Management, September 2012

Shepley healthcare principal Jennifer Aliber writes on the drivers of room planning in “The First Fifteen Feet: evaluating priorities where the corridor meets the patient room”, which appears in the June issue of Healthcare Design magazine.

Jennifer discusses strategies behind planning and prioritizing the potential components that can occupy the fifteen feet of space on the shared wall between patient room and corridor. This includes nurse servers, documentation stations, and building support.

Jennifer writes and presents widely on healthcare planning, including her “Real Numbers” series on healthcare space planning. She was a contributing author to “ICU ...[more]