The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania is one of the most recent examples of this trend in patient-centered design; in October, they opened a new pavilion to house the emergency department and in-patient care for the cardiology, neurology, neurosurgery, oncology, and transplant departments. “One of the things we know is that sleep is really, really critical to healing,” says Reich, who was one of many hospital employees who worked with the architects to finalize the design. So the new more-than-500-room building uses an “onstage/offstage” design to minimize noise and disruption. Private patient rooms are “onstage,” lining the outside of the building. Supply and medication rooms and staff break rooms are “offstage,” clustered in the core. Separating the two reduces noise and gives staff more private space, too. Each nursing specialty is now housed on the same floor, making it easier for nurses to coordinate care instead of having to travel between floors to consult about a patient.
The Centro Hospitalario Serena del Mar in Cartagena, Columbia
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