AnMed Health, Behavioral Health Unit Relocation

McMillan Pazdan Smith supported AnMed Health with full design services as they improved patient experience by providing more robust behavioral health services. As part of the consolidation of state-licensed beds into the Main Campus of AnMed Medical Center, the Behavioral Health Unit was relocated to the North Campus to house 38 beds, including 22 for geriatric behavioral health. A new Intensive Outpatient Services unit was also planned adjacent to the inpatient unit.

Throughout the design process, our team met with users and stakeholders to best conceptualize and operationalize the different, larger space. The new design facilitates compliance with consolidation needs while also allowing the hospital to offer an optimized patient experience. To ensure budget adherence, our team presented multiple pricing options that empowered the client to make educated design choices to prioritized patient care.

Housed in a former Women’s and Children’s facility, the shape of the building limited continuous sight lines down the three main hallways. We designed circular nurse stations at each vertex of the hallway triangle to double the available staff workstations and provide secure lines of sight. Placing patient rooms along only two sides of the triangle, allows the facility to function safely with fewer staff at night. Additional patient safeguards include adding a faux wall equipped with Oldcastle windows and built-in blinds to the existing ribbon windows — providing increased impact resistance and promoting wellbeing by allowing patients to safely control the blinds themselves. Impact resistance and anti-ligature features are applied throughout the new facility based on feedback from the healthcare professionals in the current unit.

In association with MOREgroup / E4H.