Articles
"New-Market
Hospitals Cater to Upscale Patients", (c) Jan
Greene, Health Facilities Management, 5/2/06
Amid the torrent of hospital construction,
rebuilding the nation’s aging acute care
infrastructure is a small but significant
current—new hospitals going up in growing suburban
areas.
And while these new hospitals are getting some of the same modern touches as
the urban rebuilds—such as private rooms and high-tech IT capacity—some are also
looking quite different from the traditional hospital. They fit into their
suburban surroundings and more resemble a hotel or retail mall.
Architect Brad Barker is enthusiastic about the trend and sees it going on
all over the country where new homes are being built. “They were cornfields one
day and now there’s a new community,” says Barker, senior vice president for
health care at RTKL, Dallas. “They want a hospital badly because it legitimizes
them as a town.”
Other hospital designers describe the “new market” trend as a small part of
total hospital construction. “Although it is a trend, it’s not a tidal wave,”
says Stephen Dailey, vice president for hospital business development and
strategic consulting services at HBE Corp. in St. Louis.
Nevertheless, certain markets are particularly hot. The Denver suburbs have
seen five new hospitals. Phoenix is a hotbed of health care expansion, with 11
new hospitals in the works. New hospitals are being built outside Jacksonville,
Fla., Houston, Indianapolis and St. Louis.
“Hospital planners are using the same demographics used to locate a Wal-Mart
and Target,” Dailey says. “The lure, the most important factor, is an
accessible, visible location.” In fact, Temple University Health System is
building a new hospital on Philadelphia property that was going to be a Wal-Mart
site until protests from the community turned the retail giant away.
The trend toward building in suburban growth areas has drawn some
controversy, particularly when hospital systems are perceived as moving less
profitable urban beds to higher-income suburban areas, weakening the urban
safety net.
But beyond policy considerations is the simple fact that the new communities
need health care services.
“This is a targeted demographic that providers are looking for,” Barker says.
“It’s maybe a little younger, established, educated people, with good jobs and
good health care benefits.” These markets can be lucrative, he says.
At the same time, these consumers demand more. “Employees are paying more and
more for health care. When you start paying more for it you get more picky about
it. That’s the dynamic really driving this,” says Barker.
Designing in these suburban areas is different from planning urban hospitals.
There’s more land available, allowing for a bigger, more spread-out campus,
usually staying below four stories. Parking is usually at grade, while trees and
greenery accent the landscape, points out Kirk Hamilton, associate professor of
architecture at Texas A&M University in College Station.
Other aspects of new-market hospitals are easy access, simple wayfinding,
upscale lobbies—some with pianos and fireplaces. Services trend toward those
needed by Boomers—obstetrics for new mothers, orthopedics for weekend
warriors—and away from downtown mainstays like trauma centers and neurosurgical
suites. Outpatient services, including labs and imaging, are designed to be
easy-to-find and use.
Some of these consumer-friendly features are borrowed from retail mall
design, says Barker, whose firm specializes in retail developments. “All of our
facilities have some kind of public concourse or public space that mimics or has
elements that are mall-like,” Barker adds.
RTKL designed Centennial Medical Center in Frisco, Texas, a sprawling complex
that looks more like an upscale hotel than a traditional hospital. The
298,000-square-foot, $52 million facility includes a multistory concourse, a
mission-style chapel, two stone fireplaces, reflection pools and a patio for
outdoor dining.
“It has a Texas flair to it, like a ranch in the hill country,” says Ken
Sutherland, vice president for construction and design at Tenet Healthcare Corp.
in Dallas, which owns Centennial. One advantage to building in these areas is
abundant natural light. “We put more windows in the building to give people an
orientation of where they are.”
RTKL is designing hospitals with a similar mind-set outside Cincinnati,
Dallas and Flint, Mich. But not every organization that seeks out design
services is interested in such innovations, or can afford them.
“There are a lot of marketing ideas and a lot of different opinions,” Dailey
says. “Sometimes spalike requirements are requested by organizations. That has
to be contrasted against the functionality of the hospital.”
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