The Role of Evidence-Based Design in Creating Patient Safe Environments

The Role of Evidence-Based Design in Creating Patient Safe Environments is a webinar presentation that explores the role of evidence-based design and the application of its principles in enhancing patient safety.

A healthcare organization's survival depends on the incorporation of best practices in patient safety. The competitive marketplace of the future, which includes computer savvy, well informed consumers, require facilities that are designed, measured and continually improved. Creating patient safe environments, supportive of both the patient and staff, should be a number one priority for design professionals.

Economic indicators suggest that a huge volume of healthcare construction activity is projected to occur before the end of 2010. For this reason, there is a tremendous opportunity for executives and their design teams to begin considering how the evidence of research, combined with careful planning and design, can positively impact patient safety.

Patient safety includes a complex set of issues that is influenced by many aspects of healthcare practices, including multiple facets of facility design. Creating patient safe environments requires an intentional design process and should not be solved by mere intuition.

This presentation explores the role evidence-based design plays in creating a patient safe environment. Based upon research information and case study examples, it looks at design factors that compromise patient safety, the role of evidence-based design (EBD), and specific EBD solutions that promote patient safety.

Webinar Learning Objectives

• Become familiar with the stats on medical errors and how they can be prevented by intentional design. Learn about four design categories which influence patient safety.
• Understand how an evidence-based process can help narrow focus on priority design issues related to patient safety.
• Review a few “lean thinking” tools which can help identify where defects may occur within an existing departmental operation and/or design.
• Learn from the evidence based process employed on an emergency department renovation project looking to improve throughput, patient safety, and customer satisfaction.

About the Speaker

Mark Vaughan, AIA, ACHA

Mark Vaughan, AIA, ACHA, is a Senior Medical Planner with WHR Architects, Inc. and Principal-in-charge of their Dallas, Texas office. He is a registered architect in the state of Texas, certified by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards and is board certified by the American College of Healthcare Architects.

Mark is a national speaker and author on healthcare trends. He is a contributing author of Patient Safe Healthcare Environments: The Role of Evidence-based Design, which is pending publication by CRG Medical Foundation for Patient Safety. Mark has been a lecturer at the University of Vienna, School of Technology, Harvard University's Graduate School of Design and the University of Houston Clear Lake Healthcare Administration program.

Since joining WHR in 1991, his healthcare work has involved campus and facility master planning and architectural design for both renovation and new construction projects. Mark has developed expertise in the design of patient and family-centered care environments, with particular interest in planning and design principles fostering patient safety.