New Cherokee Indian Hospital in Cherokee, N.C., signals a shift to integrated care, according to an article on the Smoky Mountain News website.
The $82 million, 150,000-square-foot hospital is nearly twice the size of original building.
Integrated health care means designing the hospital around the patient’s needs, arranging things so people who come for treatment aren’t sent scurrying from floor to floor on a wild goose chase for the correct specialist to address their problem, according to the hospital.
The building is long and lean instead of big and boxy. It’s strung out across multiple, connected structures, allowing numerous points of entry to increase ease of access.