By Healthcare Facilities Today

While health care providers have collaborative environments in clinical care with staff stations complemented by team rooms and conference rooms, the business spaces of many health care organizations are designed to be traditional and hierarchical, according to an article on the Healthcare Facilities Management magazine website.

When a team begins to design a healthcare office environment, it is important to understand the type of collaborative environment they are working with, the article said. 

One tools that can be deployed during the research phase is a series of leadership interviews, the article said. The design team must know why hospital leaders feel a collaborative environment is important, what leaders expect to gain by changing the design of the facilities, what the business objectives of the organization are and how leaders see the space supporting these goals.

These interviews can be followed by staff focus groups, where similar questions are posed. To gather more detailed data, survey tools and observational studies can be using to understand details regarding work processes and space utilization, the article said. 

Read the article.