Photo: The event kicked off with an idea-packed panel discussion on behavioral health facilities, patient-centered environments, improving the patient and staff experience, and designing for safety and security.
By Lindsey Coulter
Bisnow’s Southern California Healthcare Real Estate Conference on Aug. 13 focused on prioritizing patient care, building facilities of the future, the growth of medical office building demand, seismic improvements and more. The Los Angeles event drew participants from across the professional spectrum, all committed to sharing ideas and improving healthcare spaces and services.
Improving the Patient Experience
The event kicked off with an idea-packed panel discussion on behavioral health facilities, patient-centered environments, improving the patient and staff experience, and designing for safety and security. Moderator Laurie McCoy, Healthcare Practice Lead for Lionakis, started the discussion with a pressing topic: how patient-centered design and operational strategies can also improve clinician and staff satisfaction to reduce burnout and retention.
“Over the last 10-15 years, evidence-based design has become standard practice,” said panelist Janet Pangman, AIA, Principal, ZGF. “Putting an emphasis on spaces that promote healing and wellness for staff are important … and there’s a return on investment.”
Pangman noted that current strategies prioritize natural daylight, but more healthcare clients are also integrating dedicated staff spaces for exercise and respite. Pangman’s team is increasingly mindful not only about the number offices or nurse’s stations needed for a project, but also how spaces are combined for improved flexibility.
“From a provider perspective, it’s costly to have turnover,” added Larissa Stepanians, Chief Operating Officer for, Los Angeles Jewish Health, noting the system’s investments in integrating trauma-informed design and technologies to decrease manual check ins. “We’ve also had some opportunities to decentralize nursing stations, so nurses are now spending more time with patients providing the level of care that is needed.”
Safety and Security
In addressing the need to ensure patient and provider security, panelists shared innovative design strategies for enhancing safety without creating restrictive environments.
“Environment can have a huge impact on sense of safety and security,” said panelist Bruce Macpherson, Principal and Healthcare Sector Leader for HED, whose team regularly integrates biophilic design to reduce occupant stress. “It’s about laying out a day-one idea of how you’re going to provide security from a tracking standpoint, so we’re integrating a lot of fob access technologies for delegated entries.”
Additionally, Macpherson highlighted design strategies that allow for the shutdown of certain areas, creating a zone of safety for staff members, while Pangman noted design improvements to ligature-resistant furniture that create functional and aesthetically pleasing spaces.
Matt Howell, partner at Bayspring, noted that security is closely tied to deescalation.
“We talk so much about hardware and software, but access to outdoors and therapeutic gardens is also a deescalation technique,” Howell said.
Designing for All Users
While many of these strategies are broadly successful and evidence-based, panelists noted that patients, especially behavioral health patients, need a variety of flexible, dignified spaces; it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution.
“The more we learn about neurodiversity and what triggers people or what is reassuring, the more we need to have environments that…can change quickly to address those varied needs,” Pangman said.
For Macpherson, the solution to designing for a broad range of patients is to ground the design in their fundamental humanity. “That has a very positive impact on everybody who’s encountering the space,” Macpherson said, also noting how manufacturers have become good partners in developing more residential-style interiors for behavioral health spaces.
Dan Squiers, executive vice president for JLL, added that design techniques must be paired with preparation. “The built environment can help with deescalation, but it’s also about training staff in deescalation,” he said.
Care in the Community
Panelists also discussed the move away from shoehorning behavioral health environments into acute care facilities and instead investing in purpose-built spaces for the specific needs of behavioral healthcare patients. This approach ensures patients receive the correct level of care earlier, but it requires project owners and teams to advocate for behavioral health facilities as “good neighbors.”
“Nine in 10 adults in the U.S. believe that our country has a mental health crisis, and over 50% of families have been impacted by a severe crisis in mental health,” Macpherson said, emphasizing the need to communicate behavioral health as a continuum of care, while developing beautiful buildings that enhance their communities.
Howell also spoke to the value of not only humanizing the issue but using design to better integrate facilities into their neighborhoods as another tactic for turning potential opponent into allies. Other panelists agreed that it’s time to modernize the narrative.
“We have to educate people that it’s not the mental health institution of our parents or grandparents. It’s the next generation, and we’re designing thoughtfully,” Pangman added, noting the projected increase in mental healthcare needs in younger generations as well as the reduced stigma of talking about mental health needs and seeking treatment.
Look for more coverage on the event’s “Preparing for California’s 2030 Seismic Mandate: Innovative Strategies to Meeting Standards, Construction Solutions and Policy Readiness” and “Developing, Building and Designing for Modern Care: Aligning Facilities with Strategic Growth, Supporting Market Expansion, Master Planning and Future-Proofing Healthcare Real Estate by Meeting Today’s Needs” in Healthcare Construction + Operations soon, as well as a dive into the rise and demand for outpatient facilities.