Patrick Casey

As Healthcare architects and designers, we strive to make a positive contribution to healing, from the processes engaged to pursue responsive design to the built products that live on and adapt to our clients, staff and patients. An enhanced understanding of the ongoing regulatory discussions and their impact on health design is key to orchestrating design processes that yield effective solutions. Healthcare regulations are a very hot topic in today's ever-changing political climate. While uncertainty cannot be eliminated, understanding influential trends and forces can better prepare the design professional to add value in a changing environment. Healthcare planning and design are subject to shifting economic and operational factors over which they have no direct control.  Due to this relationship, healthcare architects and designers must be both rearview-minded and forward-thinking to create efficient and viable spaces that are flexible enough to meet current and future demands. An understanding of how these factors will impact the healthcare field will enable design professionals to innovatively navigate the changing landscape.

Healthcare workplace violence has evolved from a safety concern into a national crisis and a fundamental design imperative. High-profile incidents, such as the lethal shooting at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital and the staggering 30,000 weapons confiscated annually at Cleveland Clinic, underscore the severity of the threat. With 33% of nurses contemplating leaving the profession due to victimization, addressing workplace safety is essential for both workforce retention and the delivery of patient care.

This roundtable introduces a multidisciplinary framework for violence mitigation rooted in the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). Our research draws from C-suite interviews conducted across nine health systems to determine how physical space influences behavioral outcomes. We analyzed how the five core tenets of CPTED: access control, natural surveillance, territorial reinforcement, social management, and maintenance, can be strategically deployed at four scales (campus, building, unit and room level) to shield caregivers in high-stakes environments.

This session invites attendees to participate in a collaborative design ideation. Utilizing a safety checklist derived from our multi-system study, participants will audit floor plans, propose environmental modifications to enhance safety, and engage in a cross-pollination of ideas between clinicians, architects, and administrators to bridge the gap between safety policy and spatial reality.