Furniture Procurement Signals from the Healthcare Design Show: Long Cycles, Adaptability, and Sustainability Evidence

At the Healthcare Design Conference + Expo in New Orleans, designers and health system representatives discussed hospital project construction cycles of 6 to 10 years, adaptable space design, and making the case for sustainable investment through risk, according to officeinsight; LEED Gold is a planned goal. ^¹

According to officeinsight, the Healthcare Design Conference + Expo was held in New Orleans last week, and the complexity of healthcare facility projects was one of the focal points of on-site discussion.

Keith Fine of SLAM said in the report that large hospital campus projects may take 6 to 10 years from design to occupancy, while the cycle of technological change is far shorter than the construction cycle.

The same report said Fine stated that the design of a single room can also take two years, and that the timeline for larger projects depends on the project initiation and occupancy milestones and on scale, making change difficult to predict.

Robert Feldbauer of Children's Health said in the report that its new pediatric campus, a joint venture with UT Southwestern, plans to pursue LEED Gold certification for the entire campus, and that this is a goal rather than a completed result.

Feldbauer said that when making the case to management for sustainable investment, arguments based on hazard vulnerability assessments and power outage risk are more effective at driving decisions than long-term carbon targets.

Aneetha McLellan of JSI Health + A+D said in the report that its healthcare furniture design aims at spatial adaptability, rather than emphasizing only the flexibility of a single chair within a given space.