AMFP Charlotte Quickly Grows to Be Nation’s Third-Largest Chapter

In the year and a half since Jennifer O’Donnell spearheaded its formation and became its first president,…

ACHA Task Force Issues Sweeping Recommendations for VA Care

After a yearlong effort, the American College of Healthcare Architects (ACHA) has released its…

9 Things I Would Tell My Younger Self: A ‘Groundbreaking’ List

Denise Muth was a single mother starting her climb up the construction ranks before anyone had seen…

Moore Promotes the Best of Healthcare Design as ACHA President

Ted Moore’s journey to becoming the 2023 President of the American College of Healthcare Architects…

Healthcare’s Complex Drive to Resiliency, Sustainability and Net Zero

The effects of climate change on healthcare and the effects of healthcare on climate change are…

Strong Relationship, Clear Vision Enhanced Key Hospital Expansion

Relationships are the foundation of good business, and building them takes time and patience.…

The Checklist: Make Sure Simulation is the Right Tool for the Job

It is always interesting to describe what you do as a consultant because your job changes from project…

WELL Building Standards Help Quantify Benefits of Biophilic Design

People are innately driven to interact with nature, and biophilic design is an approach that accommodates…

Former Dance Hall Goes to Good Causes, Makes Way for New ER

People use that Contact Us link up at the top of the Haskell.com website for all sorts of reasons,…

Healthcare Preconstruction Manager is Perfect Career-Building Position

Haskell’s expanding Healthcare Division is designated as one of its core growth markets, and its…

Emory Univ. Hospital Heart & Vascular Center Makes Seconds Count

When treating heart conditions, time is often measured in a matter of minutes, or even seconds.…

USP 797, USP 800: A Deep Dive into Hospital Pharmacy Upgrades

Since the release of our first report on upgrading to meet USP 797 and USP 800 requirements, we have…

USP 797, USP 800: An Upgrade Checklist for Hospital Pharmacies

Pharmacy requirements are evolving, and requirements for the physical spaces that pharmacies…

Larger Midtown Miami Office Deepens Haskell’s Commitment to the South Florida Region

Haskell is increasing its investment in Miami with the opening of a new, larger office to support…

Haskell Adapts to Meet Healthcare Industry’s Unique Facility Needs

Taking a holistic approach to projects is a hallmark of Haskell’s work. Nowhere is this more true…

Empathic Design Makes Borowy Children’s Critical Care Tower Special

Early in the planning stages of the Borowy Family Children’s Critical Care Tower Frank Brooks walked…

Uncommon Collaboration Drives Healthcare Campus Transformation

With the healthcare needs of the surrounding community growing and changing, administrators…

Modular Construction Expedites Emergency Care to New Communities

Free-Standing Emergency Departments (FSEDs) are, by definition, a community’s link to healthcare…

Haskell’s Jennifer O’Donnell Named First President of AMFP Charlotte

The Association of Medical Facility Professionals (AMFP) has formed a chapter in Charlotte, North…

Consider ‘Day in the Life’ Issues Long Before Healthcare Opening

It’s common to hear the phrase “Day in the Life” (DITL) during the activation of a new healthcare…

Some Healthcare Interactions Can Benefit from Scripted Dialogue

Scripting, or a standardized response, is part of everyday life. Order a cheeseburger, and the…

Healthcare Construction Challenges and Adaptations Highlight Summit

As the world marks two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare operations and construction…

Haskell’s Healthcare Planning Position Offers Collaborative Opportunity

Medical planners often stay tucked away at their desks, blocking floorplan concepts, creating…

Extensive Hospital Project Culminates in Newly Opened Patient Tower

Through a truly collaborative effort that ultimately would span five years and six major phases,…

The Human Experience is Vital in Shaping Good Healthcare Design

High-quality design has a profound ability to affect our experience and perception of space. In…

Design Can Improve Quality of Care in Outpatient Women’s Imaging

Given that one out of every eight women born today will be diagnosed with breast cancer, scheduling…

Consulting Leader Takes ‘Whole Patient’ Approach to Facility Solutions

Newly named Vice President and Consulting Services Division Leader at Haskell, Kevin Meek might…

Specifying Healthcare Grade Fabrics in the COVID Era

I am often approached by healthcare facilities regarding soiling or staining on their furniture,…

Future-Proofing Your Healthcare Facilities

We as humans are configured a certain way. We all have the same systems – like circulatory, digestive,…

Managing Aging Facilities

Aging infrastructure in healthcare facilities represents significant cost and risk, and it has…

Case Study: Design Features Help Reduce Potential for HAIs in ICU

Post-discharge infections are one of the leading causes of hospital readmissions. Medicare payments…

Professional Engineers Are Committed to Public Health and Safety

As recently as 100 years ago, lawyers, notaries, and others were performing the work of engineers…

Haskell Keeps Expanding and Improving Use of DMC Delivery

Design Manufacture Construct (DMC) project delivery is growing in popularity, and as an early…

Hotspotting Informs the Allocation of Healthcare Resources, Services

Population health has changed ambulatory investment. While in the past healthcare systems looked…

Mitigating Moisture in Concrete Floor Slabs

Concrete slabs contain and continually absorb and emit moisture over time, potentially causing…

Healthcare Design Director Connects with Client, Creates Their Vision

Haskell’s Healthcare Design Director, for which the company is now recruiting, is a position that…

Taking Command of Capacity Management

Centralized care is emerging to reform patient care operations by generating real-time, actionable…

Achieving High-Level Design with Virtual Reality Assistance

Virtual reality has come a long way from its original uses in video games and military training exercises.…

Post-Pandemic Workplaces Look Different – How Rapid Response Asset Planning Can Help Your Organization Stay Healthy and Smart

One of the unintended consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and extended lockdowns has been unused…

Top 4 Considerations for Ambulatory Asset Planning

Health systems are seeing changing demands on their existing ambulatory asset portfolio, in both…

Creating Brand Identity in the Digital Rendering Age

As designers, we often rely on visualization strategies such as 3D modeling, renderings, and video…

Differences between Aluminum Metal Plate and MCM Panels and the Code Requirements for Both

Many buildings today are clad with aluminum skins, crisp metal panels in both simple and complex…

The Clinic of the Future

Telehealth visits, plexiglass partitions, taped-off waiting room chairs, hand sanitizer stations,…

Impact of Retail Health and “Non-Traditional” Competitors on Ambulatory Environment

The health sector has experienced tremendous disruption in the past year, but one healthcare trend…

Superintendent Mike Drawe’s Long Haskell Career Reflects the Company’s Breadth of Services, Markets and Success

Michael Drawe’s resume tells the story of Haskell’s success in commercial and industrial construction.…

Unintended Consequences

COVID-19 has forced the healthcare world into uncharted territory. Protecting patients from…

Controlling Temperature and Humidity in Hospitals

Temperature and humidity (T&H) control in hospital facilities is often a struggle for facilities…

Top Healthcare Design Trends for 2021

To say that 2020 was difficult for hospitals and health systems would be an understatement. COVID-19…

Healthcare Supply Chain: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Yesterday we had a plan on how to improve our supply chain process. We looked at supplier consolidation,…

How One Client Upped Their Technology for Staff and Patient Safety in the ICU

Intensive care units were born out of the development of new technologies to treat the most critical…

Singleton Meets High Expectations With His Hands-On and Client-Focused Style

Charles “CJ” Singleton joined Haskell in 2017 because he wanted “bigger and better things” for…

The Tipping Point: COVID-19 Positions to End the Decades-long Battle for Telehealth Reimbursement

You don’t necessarily have to be in the healthcare industry to see that COVID-19 has changed the…

Rapid Response Asset Planning

The COVID-19 pandemic has overwhelmed health systems, and the costs associated with treating…

Are Hospital Outpatient Surgery Centers Destined to Be the “Radio Star”?

MTV’s 1981 debut of the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” instantly changed how we enjoyed…

Fighting for Veterans’ Healthcare

“Who are the young men we are asking to go into action against such solid odds? You’ve met them, you…

Unsung Heroes of Healthcare Facilities

The public health crisis of the past nine months has shone a spotlight on the tireless care that doctors,…

Taking Care of Our Mental Health

2020 has been a challenging year for all of us. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our daily lives…

Technology That Overcomes Physical Barriers

With such a profound shift in how to conduct business in a pandemic, determining how to conduct tasks…

Predicting the Future of Healthcare Needs

We’ve heard the expression “Hindsight is 20/20,” but that doesn’t mean we have to move forward blindly.…

Integrating Behavioral Healthcare into Our Daily Lives

What if we could be proactive about behavioral health rather than reactive? We cannot control people…

Moving to a New Building? Invest in Change Management

Change management, the controlled implementation of required changes within a system, is a phrase…

Clash Prevention in Practice

In my previous blog, I discussed the clash prevention process and how Haskell is using that to advance…

Technology’s Impact on Perioperative Spaces

The one thing that the current pandemic is teaching us is that technology is going to play a larger…

Creativity That’s Not Hampered by Technology

We as designers are hands-on, collaborative, and interactive types. We enjoy the opportunity…

Compete or Capitulate – the Argument for Clinic Consolidation

It’s 2020, and everything seems to be experiencing a revolution. Articles use popularized cliché…

An AEC Approach to BIM Strategy

Since 1892, Haskell has embraced the evolution of documentation methods ranging from 2D pen/pencil…

Bridging the Gap between the Proposed and the Real

You walk down a corridor on your way to an operating room. On your left is a scrub sink. You pause and…

Engineering Design Post-COVID-19

The last few months have brought forth many discussions surrounding the effects of COVID-19, both…

Preparing to Respond to The Challenges of COVID-19 – The Second Wave – Part 2

Read Part 1 to learn more about how to coordinate your response to a pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic…

Preparing to Respond to the Challenges of COVID-19 – The Second Wave – Part 1

The COVID-19 pandemic has elevated the need for the healthcare industry to rethink not only our…

The New Challenge of Healthier Built Environments

Architects and designers are immersed in a challenge to create healthier built environments that…

The Support of (and Resistance to) the OR Flip Room

Outside of “How do I (the hospital) improve first case on-time start and room turnover?” the next…

Mitigating Patient Anxiety Upon Reentering Healthcare Spaces

As cities and states continue to reopen, the thought on everyone’s mind is, “How do we re-enter public…

Haskell’s Client-Focused Growth Catches ENR Editor’s Attention

Engineering News-Record’s awards and lists are the gold standard in the construction industry,…

What a Caveman Wants

The health of humankind is a complex and fragile thing – a fact highlighted by our current world pandemic.…

Planning Capex in Today’s Competing Priorities

We live in a world of competing priorities. Your spouse wants you home for dinner, your boss wants…

Inpatient Mental Health Design Strategies Post-COVID-19

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” — Benjamin Franklin COVID-19 will create…

Keeping Your Healthcare Information Safe

Do you use a smartwatch? Have you ever installed a healthcare, diet, or workout app? Or have you ever…

How Consolidated Service Centers Can Ensure Resources during Healthcare Disasters – Part 2

Read Part 1 to learn how a CSC can protect your supply chain during a public health threat or natural…

The Coronavirus and…Design?

Let’s imagine for an uncomfortable minute that viral outbreaks become the “new normal.” Yes, a…

How Consolidated Service Centers Can Ensure Resources during Healthcare Disasters – Part 1

The healthcare supply chain is complex, and the role it plays in supporting patient care is critical.…

Silver Linings Are Everywhere… Some Require a Little Creativity to Identify

Design is a collaborative process. Everyone on the team has a talent and expertise to offer the collective.…

Reevaluating Critical Care Needs after the Pandemic

Back in August I wrote a piece about the future of ICUs and discussed the unlikely potential of the…

What to Consider When Reopening a Department

While emergency departments and critical care units have been inundated with patients due to the…

Implementing an Airborne Infection Isolation and Negative Pressure Patient Room Strategy

As we define our new normal based on our COVID-19 experience, each of our perspectives will begin…

Worrying about Integrating Patients Back into Your Surgical Services?

You stepped up when the crisis demanded. You were there for your community and your patients. Now…

It’s Past Time to Move to Telehealth

If you had not started making shifts toward comprehensive telehealth before the COVID-19 pandemic…

Top 10 Design Trends We Expect Post-COVID-19

As we continue to help clients with their ability to prepare for or deal with patient care surges…

Top 10 Strategic & Operational Trends We Expect Post-COVID-19

The surge of patients caused by COVID-19 will undoubtedly affect how healthcare is delivered once…

Increasing the Capacity of Airborne Infection Isolation Capable Rooms

The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted a lot of focus and evaluation to the design of the contemporary…

Providing a Better Environment for Healthcare Workers

There is nothing like a sudden and drastic change to make you have major epiphanies, and the social…

Virtual Visits to Keep Projects on Track

As part of my job as a construction administrator, I conduct periodic site visits to our projects…

Managing Access and Flow for Immunocompromised Patients’ Safety

It’s been just over five years since my father died due to complications from acute myeloid leukemia.…

Supporting Patients to Integrate Technology into Their Daily Health

Wearable health technologies are not a new concept. From simple step counters to watches and apps…

Planning in a Time of Constrained Capacity

Health systems, particularly complex areas such as the emergency and surgical services departments,…

The Simple Questions We Ask Big Data

Every day we hear about big data, the need to harness it, and the need to analyze it. In doing so, we…

Watch Your Step! The Importance of Flooring Selections in Healthcare Spaces

As a healthcare interior designer, I am often asked why design is needed in healthcare. Once I overcome…

What Is NFPA 285?

Say you’re an architect designing a new building of Type I or Type II non-combustible construction.…

The Loophole in NFPA 285

Often, the value of an architect is measured by a flashy edifice, a well-thought-out plan, or a functional…

Activation Readiness: The Devil Is in the Details

In our last blog post on activation planning, we emphasized that implementing even a single process…

How to Stop Throwing Money Out the Window

Healthcare costs in the United States are the highest in the world, accounting for 17% of our GDP…

The Importance of Persona Building

Attending a conference focused on “patient-centered care” means that every session you go to is…

Activation Readiness: Are You Sure You Didn’t Forget Something?

Trying to juggle work, attempts at a social life, staying physically active, and keeping up with…

Harnessing the Power of the Purse through Obstetrics

Women have extensive buying power and influence, driving 70-80% of consumer purchasing.[1] So…

What to Consider When Exploring the Private NICU Model

In a NICU attention is focused first and foremost on the needs of the neonate. For an infant being…

Forget Millennials. The Alphas Are Coming.

Anyone who knows me knows I am a gadget nerd. From the latest iPhone release to my Bluetooth-powered…

Staying Competitive in Pediatrics Isn’t Child’s Play

Children’s hospitals in a lot of ways face the same challenges that general acute care hospitals…

You Say You Need an Observation Unit?

We often get asked to program and design observation units for clients, whether it’s in the master…

Local Vernacular, and Why It’s Important

As communities grew into permanent towns, it was largely due to the area’s available materials…

What’s the Future of the ICU? Magic 8 Ball Says…

My favorite find from our recent office move: A Magic 8 Ball. Even after being stored away in a back…

A Healthcare Journey from the Other Side

My job is designing the plumbing and medical gas systems for healthcare facilities, but my story…

Teleneurology as a Case for Broader Telehealth Adoption

For years telehealth has been an untapped resource for many healthcare organizations due to concerns…

Improving Patient Lives through Telestroke Programs

Strokes affect 800,000 people in the U.S. each year at a cost of $34 billion, according to the CDC.…

Which Trends Are Driving Design Changes in MOBs?

According to a new study by Avalere Health and Physicians Advisory Institute (PAI), the number…

The Why and Who of Medical Office Building Design

“The following information and design information enclosed in this package is intended to establish…

Planning Ambulatory Centers for Highest and Best Use – Part 2

As highlighted in part 1 of this blog, rigorous analyses are performed by the Haskell operations…

Planning Ambulatory Centers for Highest and Best Use – Part 1

Ambulatory centers have been touted as convenient locations for patients to take care of clinical,…

The Sliding Game of Orthopedic Design: Three Biggest Influencers of Interdependent Design in Orthopedic Surgery

Have you ever played with a sliding puzzle? A framed game, solved by shifting tiled pieces around…

Orthopedics’ Continued Shift to the Ambulatory Setting: Developing an Organizational Site-of-Care Strategy

As insurers and patient consumerism drive site-of-care decisions, many orthopedic procedures…

Behavioral Health: Beware the Unknown

Engineering system design and installation for behavior health spaces and buildings require…

Balancing the Private vs. Semi-Private Conversation

An ongoing debate in inpatient behavioral healthcare has been the benefits of private versus semi-private…

Integrating Behavioral Health into Your Primary Care Clinic

As behavioral health disorders become more prevalent and rise as a national priority, transforming…

The Balancing Act of Designing for Behavioral Health

When designing for healthcare, we often talk about patient experience. Several design features…

The One Thing for a Successful Behavioral Health Design

Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is? [holds up one finger] Mitch: Your finger? Curly: One…

Contributing to Healthcare Through the Built Environment

Either directly or indirectly, many of us have been affected in some way by one of the more than 100…

How Design Can Promote Healing in Cancer Centers

You think you’re the cancer center design expert, right? You have all the programmatic and planning…

What Does Oral Chemo Mean for Your Infusion Space?

Researchers and clinicians are constantly developing and testing new cancer treatments in the…

Design Your ASC with a Safe and Dependable Medical Gas and Vacuum System

Reliable medical gas and vacuum systems are at the pinnacle of patient care. They provide life-supporting…

How to Clear the Air in Emergency Departments

Preventing infections is a challenge in any emergency department. In particular, communicable…

Adopting a New Mindset to Improve Your ED Design Process

Projects, like people, are all unique in their own way. One might conclude that because Haskell…

How to Catch More Illegal Weapons at ED Security: Expert Advice

“Security presence” in the emergency department can be as simple as an officer sitting in a chair…

What’s the Least Expensive Way to Solve Water Chiller System Issues?

Most hospital facilities we work with have chilled water system issues. These issues tend to manifest…

Temperature Complaints? One Way Facility Directors Can Resolve

Many hospital facilities receive a plethora of “too hot/too cold” complaints from staff. Maintenance…

How To Not Be in the News for a Legionella Outbreak

With the recent reports of Legionella in the news, many facility managers wonder if an outbreak…

How to Boost Your Ambulatory Strategy and Thwart Retail Health Threats

With population health changing the healthcare industry, a different mindset challenges us to…

Incarcerated Patients in the Emergency Department: How Safe is Your Facility?

Many emergency departments (EDs) care for the types of detained patients who require a legal blood…

Three Ways ED Hallway Beds Make Your LOS Longer and Your Staff Less Productive

I’m on a campaign to remove hallway beds from emergency departments across the country. Perhaps…

Total Utilization Is Not an Option

Whether you’re talking about the people, spaces or equipment in an emergency department, one can…

How to Make a Hospital Department Relocation More Successful – Part 2

In Part 1 of this series, we discussed the scope, benefits, and different types of hospital transition…

How to Make a Hospital Department Relocation More Successful – Part 1

Most hospital department leaders receive robust support, strategies, and tools to guide career…

Need To See More Outpatients and Reduce Wait Times but Can’t Build More Space?

Do these sound familiar? Patients must wait more than three weeks for an appointment for a non-urgent…

Four Ways Emergency Physicians Can Improve Patient Flow

Use of Scribes Hospitals increasingly depend on physicians and nurses to capture data to help them…

Why Guess? Know How to Change Hospital Processes with Confidence

If you don’t know for certain that a process change will work before you try it, you’re guessing.…

What If Better Patient Care Means Reduced Hospital Revenues?

Imagine hearing this at a conference: “Success resulted in decreased revenue for our healthcare…

Improving Your Operating Room Efficiency & SURPRISE! Your Profitability

Just as in a lifesaving surgical procedure, every minute counts when optimizing the operating…

Believe These 5 Myths About Facility Condition Assessments at Your Peril

There is a lot of misinformation swirling around about how hospitals can benefit from Facility…

How the Best Nurse Leaders Decide Which Problem to Focus on First

So you think you have a big chaotic mess and don’t know where to start? The Emergency Department (ED)…

How Will You Make Money If You Don’t Know What Nursing Costs?

“We have to cut nursing costs” are dangerous words when we don’t know what it actually costs for nurses…

The Truth About Unscheduled Patients: Predictably Reliable

When you know how many patients are coming down the pipe, you reap more than just shortening their…

How to Prove that Cutting Staff Won’t Actually Save Money

When cutting costs, many hospitals trim less expensive staff, like techs and transporters. You…

Was Your New ED Designed to Fit the Way You Work?

Maybe you have a new emergency department (ED) under construction, or work in a newly built ED. But…

“We just moved in, it’s beautiful, but it doesn’t work!”

After every conference presentation we give, at least one clinical department director will approach…

Bed Shortage? How to Stretch Hospital Capacity – Part 2

Every system has surges in volume, whether they are predictable or unpredictable surges. Most…

Bed Shortage? How to Stretch Hospital Capacity – Part 1

Every system has surges in volume, whether they are predictable or unpredictable surges. Most…

What the iPhone Game “Diner Dash” Taught Me about Optimizing Emergency Department Throughput

Like most people, within hours of purchasing my first iPhone, I discovered game apps. Since that…

New Healthcare Options Grant Outpatients the Power of Choice

When you decide to buy a new car, what do you do? Perhaps, browse several dealerships to see where…

The New Hub and Spoke Model: Redirecting the Flow of Patient Care

For the past two decades, many healthcare providers have been developing networks of primary,…

Healthcare Path to Success Will Rely on Addressing Changes

With the healthcare landscape in constant flux, providers are challenged to be more accountable…

Drive for Healthcare Accountability Shines Light on Planning, Design and Construction Departments

Healthcare Planning, Design and Construction (PD&C) departments traditionally have delivered…

Healthcare Distribution Solutions Bring Benefits for Patients, Workers and the Supply Chain

For many healthcare facility directors, capacity planning presents a very real, challenging…

For Healthcare Providers, Windows of Opportunity Close Quickly

Success as a healthcare organization relies heavily on the capability to provide quality care…

Healthcare Simulation Targets Inefficiency

Hospitals find it increasingly difficult to keep balance sheets in the black while maintaining…

Hospital Energy Issues: IT Data Centers and Cogen Power

Combined Heat and Power (CHP), also known as Cogenerated or Cogen power, continues to become more…

Healthcare Design – Using Design-Build in Healthcare

The design-build method offers economic and practical benefits in developing patient care settings.…

Top 10 Engineering Trends We Expect Post-COVID-19

We have learned a lot from the outbreak of COVID-19, and we will continue to quantify the magnitude…

The Designer’s Hidden Challenge

In the landscape of corporate America, there are some well-known examples of “design-centri…