M A R C H 2 0 1 9 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 6 7
Why are you passionate about
reinventing the way facilities look?
When my oldest daughter was 6 years old, she was
diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and given 3 days
to live. I was devastated, as you can imagine. Doctors
had to inject her central nervous system with
chemotherapy drugs to keep her alive and, thankfully,
we just celebrated the 20
th
year of her being cancer free.
Sitting in sterile, whitewashed hospital rooms while her
life hung in the balance changed the trajectory of my
life and dramatically altered my worldview. My original
degree was in biochemistry but, after my daughter got
sick, I refocused my career path on revolutionizing
healthcare design.
How can surgical design
promote patient-centered care?
New facilities use adjacencies in physical layouts to maxi-
mize touchpoints between providers and patients' family
members. For example, it's important for surgeons to
update loved ones after surgery, but it's more difficult for
those interactions to occur when the waiting room is far
from the ORs. Private meeting spaces are now being built
within steps of pre- and post-op areas to limit the amount
of ground surgeons need to cover to meet with family
members.
ancer Scare Continues to
Inspire Patient-Friendly Designs
C
Deborah M. Wingler, PhD, MSD-HHE, EDAC
Patient advocate and creator of healing healthcare spaces
