4 Experience-Enhancing Hospital Design Strategies

Healthcare facility planning, design and construction can have a significant impact on quality of care, patient experience and outcomes.

“There has been a pretty powerful magnifying glass placed on facilities and their impact on patient care over the last five years, and I believe it has opened the eyes of hospital leaders that we need to take care of our buildings if we want to take care of our patients,” American Society for Health Care Engineering Deputy Executive Director Chad Beebe said in an HFM article.

Across the country, hospitals and health systems are exploring innovative ways to improve quality of care and patient satisfaction through architecture. Here are a few standout tactics from providers recently highlighted by HFM.

1 | Creating Patient Rooms That Can Adapt to Changing Needs

University of Alabama (UAB) Medical West Hospital in Bessemer — which opened in 2024 and received a 2026 Vista Award for immersive planning, teamwork and smart design methods — was designed with adaptable patient rooms. The size and scale of the spaces allow for potential conversion to other uses. For example, the hospital’s standard patient rooms can be converted to intensive care unit (ICU)-level areas in just a couple of days. They could also become specialty treatment spaces, such as orthopedic, cardiovascular or women’s care.

University of Michigan Health’s D. Dan and Betty Kahn Health Care Pavilion leverages a similar approach in Ann Arbor, where each private patient room has the potential to become an intensive care space, if necessary, a feature that proved especially advantageous during the pandemic.

2 | Designing Pediatric Spaces with Lessons from Schools

Pediatric healthcare environments can learn from K-12 design decisions, since both types of facilities aim to meet the diverse needs of children and support their growth and healing, according to HFM.

For example, Minneapolis-based Allina Health’s United Hospital Outpatient and Inpatient Mental Health facility in St. Paul, Minnesota, minimizes stress and provides comfort for pediatric patients with ample natural light, nature-inspired building materials and clear circulation paths. The facility also creates a sensory-friendly space with purposeful color use, soft textures and visual cues, that support therapists’ work with children on emotional regulation.

3 | Using 3D-Printed Models to Test Real-World Functionality

As part of an expansion project, the University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital in Lexington is optimizing operating room layouts with 3D-printed, to-scale models. The miniature mock-ups of ORs — including operating tables, medical furnishings and surgical equipment — offer a cost-effective way for anesthesiologists, surgeons and OR technicians to experiment with placement and layouts and determine the best arrangements for smooth workflows.

“It’s easier to have tangible pieces to work out workflows, traffic in the room, power and data,” Angela Walton, capital construction senior manager at the University of Kentucky, told HFM. “This collaborative team approach gives you much better input from all users.”

The project is scheduled for completion in 2029 and will add up to eight ORs and associated support spaces.

4 | Supporting Healing with Natural Elements

Some health systems and hospitals are harnessing the healing and calming power of nature in clinical spaces. SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital is one example: It recently debuted a behavioral health inpatient unit that supports healing and comfort with wall-protection printed artwork that brings a biophilic touch to the space with outlines of leaves and flowers.

UAB Medical West Hospital also draws on the healing benefits of the surrounding natural landscape: Floor-to-ceiling windows offer forest views, and patients, family members and staff seeking a calm moment can stroll pond-adjacent walking trails. The facility is also fully glazed to reflect nearby pine trees and wetlands, and the Cahaba lily — a native plant in the area the hospital serves — appears as a design feature in the lobby and on the ground floor.

“One thing that really stood out to me was that they had to build this hospital into an existing ecosystem — there was a watershed surrounding it — and they did it without disturbing the environment,” Jason A. Piper, executive director of planning, design and construction at AdventHealth Multi-State Division in Merriam, Kansas, and chair of the Vista Award Task Force, told HFM. “They created a beautiful building on that diverse site that really serves the community.”