When a healthcare organization is potentially committing millions of dollars to a capital improvement project, it's critical to ensure that the design conforms to best practices and is likely to achieve the intended results. It's equally important to be able to measure the effect of the new facility according to specific metrics to ensure those results are being achieved. But reviewing the published Evidence-Based Design (EBD) literature for every issue or design decision may not be the best use of your time.
The final course in the six-course certificate program "Healthcare Facilities Design: Strategy & Innovation," offers practical advice and guidance about how project participants can conduct their own research on a timeline and budget appropriate to a project schedule. It lays out a practical approach to conducting small-scale, relatively rapid empirical research studies targeting a specific project, in contrast to relying exclusively on the published EBD research literature.
This course is particularly relevant because most hospitals and healthcare facilities have a major design project underway, or are about to begin one. The various stakeholders in the planning and design process must understand evidence-based design and how they can conduct practice-based research that complements the published EBD research literature and provides insights and evidence for their own specific project.
This course is of benefit to hospital administrators and leaders (committee members, chiefs of medicine, directors of nursing, etc.), as well as to architects, engineers and others, involved in the design of hospitals and healthcare facilities. This course will give practitioners the tools they need to become more intelligent consumers of EBD research. They will also be able to conduct targeted, project-based studies.
