LEBANON, N.H. — Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital and E4H Environments for Health Architecture of Burlington, Vt., celebrated the opening of the new Alice Peck Day (APD) Memorial Hospital Multi-Specialty Clinic in November 2017. The construction of the 44,000-square-foot facility began in 2014, running a budget of approximately $11 million with the clinic functioning as a multi-specialty operation, providing myriad services all under one roof.

The services of this new multi-specialty clinic include primary and family care, pediatrics, women’s care, diagnostic imaging, phlebotomy, orthopedics, general surgery, and physical and occupational therapy.

One of the key goals of this design is to allow patients, who are often coming from long distances, to complete multiple appointments in one visit, creating a time-efficient service for all patients. For example, a family could schedule annual physicals for both parents and children as well as a physical therapy session for a family member recovering from shoulder or knee surgery. They could also have follow-up imaging or blood work done for a family member who recently had a procedure.

E4H Partner Jennifer Arbuckle, explained that the most important feature of this facility is the organizing principle of convenience, bringing with it a broad range of outpatient services into one building, for the benefit of both patients and healthcare providers.

“This design also makes it much easier for physicians and nurses from different health specialties to consult and collaborate with each other. They’re across or down the hall from each other, not in separate buildings,” Arbuckle said.

The completion of this facility highlights the layout of the exam rooms and the design of the waiting rooms. The layout of the exam rooms are standardized, modular and adaptable so that any exam room can be used over the course of a day by a primary-care doctor, pediatrician, gynecologist, orthopedist, general surgeon or other type of specialist or therapist. Arbuckle explained that this will increase the utilization rate of exam rooms, with positive financial benefits. The waiting rooms, check-in and checkout areas, as well as corridors, have all been situated to maximize the integration of daylight into the interior of the facility, with the hopes of creating a warm and welcoming environment for its patients.

E4H implemented specific design practices to bolster the focus of the facility on patient care and improve the overall delivery of services.

“E4H’s vision is always about creating flexible environments for health that enhance the well-being of patients and families — what we call ‘smart facility design.’ Working with Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital was a wonderful opportunity to bring this vision to life in the context of bringing a broad set of outpatient services into one New Hampshire location to maximize patient convenience and collaboration among healthcare providers,” said Arbuckle.

When asked about suggestions E4H may have for designing facilities such as these, Arbuckle explained the importance of best facilitating the convenience and collaboration for both patients and clinical staff.

“Translating this principle into design requires thoughtfully bringing together comprehensive, multidisciplinary user groups to develop and come to consensus on facility design plans — particularly flexible, modular design that can accommodate the full range of outpatient services provided in the multi-specialty clinic,” said Arbuckle. “As you can imagine, this requires lots of discussion and many rounds of refining and perfecting designs. Thankfully, we had very strong administrative leadership on the owner’s side that kept these conversations on track, always moving forward, and led to a facility design we believe everyone at APD — and most importantly, all their patients — will greatly appreciate for the convenience it provides and the collaboration in excellent healthcare delivery it promotes.”

The two-story clinic is fully operational and open to patients, centrally located on the Lebanon campus of Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital.

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