Wexner Digital Spread

Design for Health & Wellbeing

As the demand for healthy environments increases, so does a growing recognition that health doesn’t just happen in hospitals and clinics.

When an integrated design team designs a single building, they inform the design by listening to their client’s needs, drawing from past experience, and researching technical advancements. But what happens when they design three iterations of the same building type for the same client, in three unique communities? They can make each building better than the last by learning from another industry: product development. Iterative design, common in product development, is known to establish a feedback loop that yields dual benefits of personalized user value and high-volume efficiencies.

Patient-driven Iterative Customization

This was the opportunity facing our team at The Ohio State University, where a collaborative iterative customization approach realizes gains in function, performance, and patient satisfaction. The university recently approved an ambitious $3 billion expansion plan. Reinventing the way academic healthcare reaches communities is central to the plan. A series of new Columbus-area outpatient campuses for the Wexner Medical Center each includes a five-story medical office building and connected ambulatory surgery center. To get the most out of this multi-campus program, our team moved through a classic iterative customization sequence of plan, design, implement, test, and evolve.

The OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY WEXNER MEDICAL CENTER OUTPATIENT CARE FACILITIES Columbus, Ohio

Design-led workshops identified five overarching goals: flexibility, patient and staff experience, respite areas, intuitive and efficient arrival experiences, and community use. The workshops also defined process improvement goals with the university’s project management team and building operation goals – including energy and water use – with the facilities team. These goals, aligned with the industry-leading Center for Health Design’s Post-Occupancy Evaluation Toolkit, establish what should be measured during the feedback loop.

Define the program goals

Plan:

The prototype is a flexible chassis off which various medical specialty clinics hang using modular design. It’s informed by healthcare design best practices and the university’s brand and standards.

Develop a prototype

Design:

The first campus accommodates experts from more than 20 specialties so patients can take care of all their major health care needs, from prevention to surgery, close to where they live.

Apply the prototype

Implement:

Research Manager Helen Ho, Ph.D, EDAC, defined our design team’s opportunities to better both patient experience and building performance by analyzing objective and subjective datasets. Objective, including data on change orders, building operations, schedule, and space utilization Building energy use analysis compared actual electricity and gas usage to predictive models and prompted recommendations for HVAC improvements to the prototype, which also align with the university’s newly adopted Sustainable Design and Construction policy.

Gather and analyze data to inform prototype improvements

Test:

Insights from the testing analysis informed improvements to ADA access, wayfinding, acoustics, areas of respite, prefabricated wall systems, and building energy performance.

Apply the lessons learned to an improved prototype

Evolve:

The measurement methodology will be repeated and applied to future campuses in the Wexner Medical Center expansion program.

Gather and analyze data to inform further prototype improvements

Test:

Subjective, including patient and caregiver experience 226 staff surveys and 11,000 patient survey comments uncovered many non-design related experiential fixes that were addressed in the first year of occupancy. Other comments were sorted into four categories: operational, parking, wayfinding, and indoor environmental quality (IEQ). Over 75% of the comments were positive, clear evidence that fundamentally the prototype works. Two thirds of negative comments fell into the operational category. Some of these were addressed by the university through organizational improvements to their service model. Others were tagged for solving with site and space programming, as well as facility design and material specification.

New Albany - Version 1 Specialties: ambulatory surgery, endoscopy, primary care, specialty medical, surgical clinics

Dublin - Version 2 Specialties: ambulatory surgery, endoscopy, primary care, specialty medical, surgical clinics Market-driven customizations Larger three-story ambulatory surgery center, addition of orthopedics, sports medicine, and joint care

Powell - Version 3 Specialties: ambulatory surgery, endoscopy, primary care, specialty medical, surgical clinics Iterative customizations Acoustics: decrease noise transmission and improve sound masking Change Orders: prefabricated interior modular wall system increases flexibility and reduces effect of owner-requested program changes Energy: heat recovery chiller and additional energy meter Experience: waiting areas with improved wayfinding, reception, and amenities; more staff respite spaces Parking: more ADA spaces, distance from arrival to farthest space reduced by almost 50%

Powell: Project Approved: May 2022 Construction: April 2024–June 2026 est. Open: August 2026 est. Size: 209,000 SF Acres: 30 Cost: $180m

Dublin: Project Approved: May 2019 Construction: July 2020-June 2022 Open: September 2022 Size: 272,000 SF Acres: 33 Cost: $161m

New Albany: Project Approved: April 2018 Construction: July 2019-June 2021 Open: August 2021 Size: 251,000 SF Acres: 31 Cost: $138m

Occupational

career, certifications, work ethic, school, training, interests, abilities

Spiritual

values, intuition, character, ethics, tradition, enthusiasm, spiritual fulfillment

Intellectual

time management, study skills, goal setting, memory, test preparation, imagination

Physical

recreation, nutrition, sleep, relaxation, energy level, fitness, preventative maintenance

Emotional

personality, stress management, self-efficacy, love, joy, hardiness

Environmental

community service, world and political awareness, natural resource management, recycling, food choices

Social

relationships, culture, organizations, family, friends, clubs, parties, communication

Wellness Wheel

expense tracking, donations, financial literacy, financial planning, food and housing security

Financial

The Evolution of Campus

When college campuses shuttered across the nation in 2020, our Higher Education team implemented their proven 360-degree engagement process to better understand the situation. What initially began as a listening exercise blossomed into a research initiative – one that we have implemented each year since.

72%

of university presidents say their most pressing issue is student wellness.

of student affairs professionals said the mental health of students and employees worsened during the past year.

Source: ACE, 2023

Source: NASPA, 2022

Study Goals

We are curious how collegiate institutions define and measure student well-being in the context of a changing institutional model. DLR Group is approaching this from a multi-dimensional, holistic framework of well-being used by many organizations. In our research, we are excited to uncover new strategies and programs that will engage students across all aspects of wellness. We are also looking to learn what existing strategies have had success and remain a priority to build on. As designers, we’re focused on how the findings will influence how we plan, program, and design campus environments for our clients. We envision the outcome to be more equitable, inclusive, and foster the health and well-being of students for generations to come.

EOC 4.0

Define

Create

Implement

Ideas

Insights

Solutions

IDEA

Source: “Wellness Wheel.” University of Nevada, Las Vegas. https://www.unlv.edu/studentwellness/about. Feb 2023

Wellness Framework

EOC 4.0

Our study will consider the eight dimensions of the Wellness Wheel essential to achieving personal well-being.

Research Participant Profile

EOC 4.0

Representation from every region in the United States: including large and small; rural and urban institutions; private, public, and community college institutions.

Participants will include facilities and student affairs personnel representing a diverse student dataset.

Participants from Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic-Serving Institutions.

EOC 4.0

Click below to participate, receive DLR Group Higher Education email updates and more.

2023 Topic: Student Wellness and Engagement

EOC 4.0

70%

Evolution of Campus 4.0: How to Aid Students Holistically