On our walk through the Illinois medical district, we stopped into Rush, Stroger, and The University of Illinois Hospital. At each hospital we came in through the main entrance and took a short walk through the public space. The disparity between the three hospitals was obvious. Rush, a private non-profit teaching hospital, has a beautiful lobby on level 4. The space has natural lighting, a restaurant, and a proper separation from the emergency department and clinical space. The public entrance is on the other side of the building as the ED entrance, which is important in avoiding the chaos that occurs through the ED entrance. On the other hand, Stroger and The UIC Hospital have an unsuccessful relationship between the public entrance and the ED entrance. Both hospitals have the two entrances close to each other, which is a necessary adjacency, but they do not allow for any visual barrier. This creates can create an unpleasant experience for the public. For example, as our group stood outside the public entrance of The UIC Hospital, we could see a man on stretcher being taken out of the ED into an ambulance. This is the type of experience that we'll have to keep in mind when designing our health and wellness community center.
Another thing that stood out in the medical district was the lack of amenities built in for the variety of health determinants we've discussed. In terms of healthy food options, au bon pain was the only restaurant we saw. Each hospital has a cafeteria, but a wider variety of options would be ideal. We also didn't see much amenity put in place for physical fitness. It would at least be helpful to provide the staff with a fitness center, because their health and well-being is incredibly important to keeping these hospitals running. Overall, it was a helpful experience being able to observe the positives and negatives in the medical district. Though the medical district is quite a bit larger than our site, it will be a good precedent for how health and wellness can embrace a community.
After our conversation regarding health and health equity, our definition doesn't quite matchup with the conditions at the medical district. We defined "Health" as the state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being based on the highest attainable living conditions. Working off of this definition, we defined "Health Equity" as equal access to resources and conditions. In the case of The Illinois Medical District, Rush Hospital would be the highest attainable condition. However, not everyone has access to Rush through their healthcare plan. This creates a separation in health equity that could have a greater effect than just healthcare. The mental well-being of a patient and his or her family can be greatly adjusted based on the hospital condition they are treated in.
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