Striking a balance between a healing, homelike atmosphere and the need for safety, durability and maintenance weighed against cost requires an open mind, she says.Īnother pediatric facility on the horizon is the new, 47,000-square-foot Center for Advanced Behavioral Healthcare at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) located at 4601 Market Street in West Philadelphia. “We have a 28-color paint palette, and we use colors you find in nature, which feel soft and soothing,” Larson says. The facility also pays great attention to the use of color. For instance, metal detectors are part of the entrance, but they are built into the walls, so it seems like walking through a doorway. The design team set out to create a space that’s safe - keeping patients from self-harm or harming others - while avoiding the white walls or concrete blocks of a stereotypical psychiatric hospital. “The first impression needs to be one of warmth and compassion,” Jaunich says. “Security staff have full view of you, but you don’t see them when you first enter.”īecause many admitted children are coming to the facility by ambulance from a hospital emergency room, appropriate lighting and colors at the entrance can set the tone for the child’s entire visit, adds Liz Jaunich, PrairieCare’s director of real estate and facilities management. “The first thing you will see when you enter the lobby is the reception desk straight ahead, while the security office is strategically placed behind you,” she says. Erica Larson, AIA, CID, CHID, EDAC, LEED AP BD+C, vice president and principal for the Pope Design Group, architect for the PrairieCare expansion, says that supporting patient care through design principles starts at the unit’s front door. PrairieCare, a specialized psychiatric services provider in the Twin Cities, is adding 30 inpatient beds to the existing 71 psychiatric beds at its youth psychiatric hospital in Brooklyn Park, Minn. A number of pediatric facilities across the country are demonstrating their commitment to meet this national need through new construction or renovations.
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