Doug King of Stantec discussed Population Health Management with us. He defined Population Health Management as, "A systematic approach to healthcare that aims to prevent and cure diseases to keep people well". We discussed the wide range of elements that could improve outside of the hospital to improve population health. Some of these elements include: education, transportation, housing, gather space, and access to healthy food. For me, the biggest takeaway was the extra space that Doug believes will be available in hospitals with increased innovations in telehealth. Increased healthcare accessibility within the home will have an inverse relationship to hospital admittance. This will create a unique opportunity to repurpose existing hospital space. HDR's "Focal Point" project is a rare opportunity to design a brand new wholistic wellness complex. Existing hospitals could potentially transition into these types of wellness complexes by repurposing their space and reallocating their resources. The challenge for the design community then becomes which health determinants to target, and how to design these spaces to best connect with the community.
Examples:
Renovating part of the Hospital's parking structure to create low-income housing units
Compressing the Lobby space to add a healthy food market
Converting patient units into classrooms
Doug spoke about the Center on Halsted, which is a community center on the northside of Chicago for the LGBTQ community. The building features health and wellness classes, fitness activities, and support groups. The center appears to be successful, and its programming should be used as a precedent for the progress of population health.
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