The business case for better buildings.

Beginning in 2000, a research collaborative of progressive healthcare organizations came together with The Center for Health Design to evaluate the impact of their new buildings on patient outcomes. Those organizations are now engaged in three-year programs of evaluation, using comparative research instruments and outcome measures. Their experiences are synthesized here in a composite 300-bed "Fable Hospital" to present evidence in support of the business case for better buildings as a key component of better, safer, and less wasteful health care.

The business case for better buildings.

The buildings in which customers receive services are inherently part of the service experience. Given the high stress of illness, healthcare facility designs are especially likely to have a meaningful impact on customers. In the past, a handful of visionary "healing environments" such as the Lucille Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California; Griffin Hospital in Derby, Connecticut; Woodwinds Health Campus in St.

Technowave 2010: hospitals compete on high-tech care.

The medical arms race is back. Hospitals are competing vigorously around new technology, spending millions on da Vinci surgical systems, Gamma knives, and high-tech heart implants. Many new technologies require large investments in specialized facilities and technology, pushing up capital investment and health costs.