As a designer who specializes in behavioral healthcare spaces, one of my most difficult jobs is convincing people that you need an expert if you are going to get the most value out of your behavioral healthcare project. Most hospital facilities just hire the same designers that they are used to using and by now, most healthcare designers have one or two behavioral health facilities on their resume. So, what is the difference?
At human eXperience, we don’t try to be your designer. We work with your designer to make sure that you have the right combination of design and operational expertise to optimize your treatment environment. Because experience matters, especially in Behavioral Healthcare.
I recently had the opportunity to design a unique facility that was a mix of Intensive Outpatient (IOP) treatment and residential beds. Because the facility had a screening process that focused on a specific and unique patient type, the safety and security needs were different than a typical inpatient facility or a typical outpatient facility. Because of my extensive experience, I was able to help the client work out the right combination of solutions to satisfy their clinical team, legal team, insurance company and licensure agency.
Recently, that facility opened. It is both beautiful and appropriately safe for their population. It received all the appropriate licenses and accreditations. The owner was very happy that we had found the right balance between the feel of the space, the needs of the patients and the appropriate safety features.
As I watched everyone appreciating the building at the grand opening, I was reminded of an important bit of wisdom I learned from a professor in architecture school. He said, “You have to know the rules to break the rules”. Back then he was making me meticulously draw a full scale elevation of a Corinthian column but the same idea applies here. If you just read the guidelines, you can’t do what we did. To break the rules; to make a space that is specific to a clinical paradigm that isn’t typical; you have to not only understand WHAT the rules are, but WHY they are. Only with that knowledge can you find the right balance.
And that is why expertise matters. Every BH space is different. The right choices for a psychiatric acute care space with an average LOS of less than a week may be very different from a long-term care space where patients stay for months. A psychiatric state hospital is very different from a general hospital inpatient unit and these are all different from a residential treatment facility or a crisis stabilization unit. Throw patient typologies into the mix such as geriatrics, pediatrics, deaf, blind, forensic or med-psych and you have an almost infinite variety of options.
That is why you need experts on board who are focused on the ultimate goal: an efficient, effective therapeutic environment where you can provide outstanding care to a vulnerable population on a tight budget. You can still hire your favorite architect. Just give them the tools they need to do a fantastic job for you. You deserve it and so do your patients.
