Q&A: Erin Rae Hoffer, Autodesk Manager
Building information modeling, a technology that allows architects, engineers and contractors to create integrated, three-dimensional digital design documents, is at once a catalyst for tremendous change within the design/construction community and a source of confusion among design professionals and project owners.
Healthcare Facility Management
In the current economic climate, healthcare administrators are looking for ways to cut costs and increase efficiencies. One of the logical areas to examine is facility management.
Facility managers look after the maintenance and upkeep of facilities and grounds, including heating and air conditioning, electric power, plumbing and lighting systems, cleaning and security.
Expanded Colo. Spinal Center Opens
LONE TREE, Colo. — A renovated and expanded spine and joint center opened at Sky Ridge Medical Center in June, improving a variety of services at the facility.
Active Security at Healthcare Facilities
Healthcare Facility Safety is a Multi-Faceted Issue
Safety and security issues must be considered systemically. There are a myriad of variables that come into play in a healthcare environment. Safety is not relegated to one problem with a corresponding safeguard; it functions as an active system.
Secure Design
An urban hospital, for example, might create an outer ring with bollards and rails that appear decorative but are strong enough to stop a vehicle from crashing into an entrance.
Q&A: Stan Spellman, of Spellman Brady & Co.
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Stan Spellman, vice president of St. Louis-based Spellman Brady & Co., has more than 20 years of experience in interior design. His firm specializes in interior design, furniture procurement and artwork master planning at healthcare, senior care and higher education facilities. He spoke with HC&O News during a phone interview from St.
Fit For A King
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Sanford Children’s Hospital has made it easier for sick kids to imagine their doctors as knights in shinning white armor, instead of lab coats, with a new $60 million, 179,000-square-foot facility designed to resemble a storybook castle.
Safety & Security
When the doors to the new Oklahoma Department of Mental Health’s Forensic Center in Vinita opened in July 2008, patients and staff were welcomed into a medical facility offering the latest in technology and patient safety.
Four years ago, the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health retained PSA-Dewberry, a national architectural firm, to design the new 200-bed forensic center that houses patients deemed incompetent to stand trial and those judged not guilty by reason of insanity.
Main Street America
History is often the element that ties people in rural communities together, but if that history also applies to an active healthcare facility, the community could have a problem on its hands.
Until the recent opening of a replacement hospital, Bell Memorial Hospital in Ishpeming, Mich., held the distinction of being the oldest hospital in the state. The 90-year-old facility was crumbling as it continued to serve patients from the former mining communities at the midpoint of Michigan’s isolated upper peninsula.