Dr. Anderson speaks at one of the AHCA main speaker sessions where the theme was a focus on creating therapeutic healing environments that are inspirational to promote healing.

Session Description:

Healthcare design has evolved around patient-centered care and health outcomes related to the built environment. However, clinicians face increasing workload demands and a shift in this design model is needed in order to understand the impact of space on staff efficiency, job satisfaction and multidisciplinary teamwork. Healthcare staff members utilize these areas for countless consecutive hours, working both day and night shifts. Dr. Anderson’s presentation will explain the necessity of providing staff respite areas inside the domains of the health care facility. These areas should be connected to the exterior environment to provide regenerative spaces to regain the perspective necessary for adequate care giving.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the medical staff experience, including design and layout requirements to accommodate movement patterns and space needs.
• Explore the spaces needed for staff emotional support during intense periods of training, for those who serve on the front lines of patient care.
• Gain an understanding of successful environmental components promoting staff efficiency and multidisciplinary care.
• Describe the work hour restrictions currently underway within medical training programs across North America, changing the way physicians practice and gain an understanding of how this change affects space and design requirements.

The sketch demonstrates the change towards a shift-work model for physicians, where work periods are regulated and hand-offs of patient information take place more frequently.

Dr. Anderson co-leads a round table session discussing the impact of space design on multidisciplinary collaboration between scientists and clinicians.

Session Description:

Diana Anderson, M.D., MRAIC, LEED AP, Resident Physician, Department of Medicine, New York-Presbyterian Hospital – Columbia University Medical Center; Thomas Postler, Ph.D., Post-doctoral Research Scientist, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Columbia University Medical Center.

It has been documented that 80% of scientific breakthroughs occur outside the laboratory environment in social settings. Take an inside look at the research and clinical environments through the eyes of a scientist and a physician working on the same academic healthcare campus and understand the interface between the two, a true bench to bedside approach. Discuss the unique features of collaboration in the research setting and subsequent application to clinical treatment. The types of interactions that occur in the research and clinical environments will be shared , and subsequently translated into a discussion of the built environment’s impact on collaboration.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the impact of an interdisciplinary research approach, which is then applied to patient care. Learn how space can accommodate the independent needs of the scientist, while maintaining a balance of social interaction and discussion.
• Recognize how this research is then taken from the bench and applied at the bedside by a clinician and how physicians use interactive spaces with the multidisciplinary team for patient care.
• Explore ways in which the physical environment can foster this model of teamwork and enhance communication between the two environments to promote application of research. Identify barriers to effective collaboration within both the laboratory and the clinical settings.
• Describe the types of interactions that occur in the laboratory and hospital environments in order to explore design solutions for creating interdisciplinary discussion forums within both the research and clinical settings.