A Children’s Hospital that Invokes Healing

Children are the road to our future, so we need to do everything we can to help them survive and prosper. The example shared below is about a children’s hospital that invokes healing by creating access, and providing a welcoming environment that eases fear. The article highlights below were originally published by Healthcare Design Magazine in the Pediatrics Section.

Children’s National Hospital Before

When the Building 52 medical ward opened in the 1930s on the campus of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the multistory building featured open-air sleeping porches for Army personnel suffering from tuberculosis. (Fresh air and sunshine were widely prescribed ways to help rid the body of the infectious disease affecting the lungs.) As new treatments evolved in the aftermath of World War II, such spaces were no longer needed, and by the 1960s the facility’s open-air wards had been walled over and the facility was being used as an outpatient clinic for Army soldiers. (Source)

When the Reed complex merged into the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., in 2011, the facility was closed and the building sat vacantly. Five years later, Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., acquired the structure along with two neighboring buildings and a parking garage for development into a new clinic and research and innovation center, part of an ongoing effort to establish satellite clinics around D.C.  (Source)

Children’s National Hospital After

Renamed Children’s National Shepherd Park, after its surrounding neighborhood, the new 24-exam room pediatric clinic on the top two floors of the former medical ward is the organization’s 15th such branch. “By transferring medical staff from our main hospital to the clinic we can provide much more convenient access to care for more than 20,000 children living in that part of the District,” says Charles Weinstein, executive vice president, and chief real estate/facilities officer at Children’s National Hospital. (Source)

Overseeing the update to the former clinic were Array Architects (Conshohocken, Pa.) and Elkus Manfredi Architects (Boston). The changes included refreshing the entry zone with colorful furniture in a variety of configurations and adding colored accent walls and an asymmetrical floor pattern in the clinic’s main corridor to aid wayfinding. The building’s rectangular layout lent itself to a linear flow of patient care with an onstage/offstage configuration that places exam rooms in the core, surrounded by a U-shaped corridor for provider workspaces. “The layout gives patients and their families a measure of privacy, and also gives the staff immediate access to areas for workstations and for private consultations with other staff members,” says Irene Thompson, executive director of real estate and capital planning at Children’s National Hospital. (Source)

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Marie Wikoff is the creator of Wikoff Design Studio based out of Reno, Nevada. Her expertise in healthcare design has helped develop modern design for healthcare organizations locally, regionally and internationally. Her credentials include Evidence-Based Design Accreditation and Certification (EDAC), American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designer (CHID), the National Council of Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ) and LEED AP. Contact Marie Wikoff

Source: Hall, Matthew. “In Service: Children’s National Hospital – HCD Magazine.” HCD Magazine – Architecture & Interior Design Trends for Healthcare Facilities, 14 Mar. 2022, https://healthcaredesignmagazine.com/projects/in-service-childrens-national-hospital/.