By Healthcare Facilities Today

In a blog on the Healthcare Design magazinewebsite, Bernita Beikmann, HKS Inc., said that when using Lean methods on healthcare design projects, designers have to ask the question: “Who is my customer and what do they value?”

According to the blog, the end customer of a healthcare project design is the patient, and that person defines value,  

"As design professionals, it’s important for us to listen to the needs of our clients and the staff. We also must remember our most important customer: the patient. They are who ultimately decides what is value-added, and it’s that patient’s experience that provides the value test to all involved," she wrote.

The blog offered the example of Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health. The design team met with the hospital physicians and staff as well as the end customer, patients, and families. Families requested a bathtub be included in the bathroom design.

Infection prevention standards didn’t allow bathtubs and there was concern regarding the potential of unsupervised children around standing water, but the families did not back down. Eventually with some compromises, the designers found a way to include a standard tub in a room designed for a shower.

Read the blog.