This is the time of year for lists. So, before I go on holiday break next week, I offer my own top read blog posts of 2013.

10. Making the Connection between HCAHPS and the Built Environment

Recently, I stumbled across really good white paper by Terry Thurston and Gary Vance at BSA LifeStructures on how the design of the patient room and related areas can improve satisfaction and outcomes. Beginning with a brief overview of the evidence-based design process, the authors take us through an exploration of the relationship between the HCAHPS survey questions and the built environment...>>Read more

9. Fable Hospital Story Still Needs to Be Told

Have you ever heard the story of the Fable Hospital? The one where a bunch of very smart people make the business case for building a better hospital using real-life examples and data on a make-believe project? Fable was originally conceived in the early part of the last decade by Derek Parker, FAIA, RIBA — who was with Anshen+Allen at the time, and also a member of The Center for Health Design’s board of directors...>>Read more

8. 6 Social Media Tools You Should or Shouldn't be Using

I had dinner with the vice president of healthcare for a large furniture manufacturer last week, who told me that she’d just started tweeting and wasn’t really sure how she should be engaging in social media. Welcome to the brave new world of content marketing, I told her.  The fact is, that anyone who tweets, blogs, or posts updates to Facebook or LinkedIn is a content marketer...>>Read more

7. 10 Design Details to Sweat About in Patient Rooms

I love the saying, “don’t sweat the small stuff,” which was coined by Richard Carlson, Ph.D., in his best selling 1996 book on how not to let the small things in life get the best of us. However, as Bill Santamour at Hospitals & Health Networks pointed out this week, sweating the small stuff is essential to improve the patient experience...>>Read more

6. 20 Educational Sessions to Attend at Healthcare Design

It’s only 21 days until the Healthcare Design Conference in Orlando, FL, and I’m starting to hear some buzz.  If you’re like me, you’re trying to decide which sessions to attend and who you want to connect with while you’re there. So let me help you out...>>Read more

5. 10 Innovative Healthcare Design Ideas That are No-Brainers

Is there a lack of innovation in healthcare design today?  There are plenty of nice new projects, but, according to many in the industry, not a lot of groundbreaking design ideas. Perhaps innovation is overrated. After all, it took us 100 years to put wheels on our suitcases...>>Read more

4. Monty Python's Take on the Patient Experience

Fans of Monty Python may remember they know something about SPAM, but check out their take on the hospital patient experience, from “The Meaning of Life”...>>Read more

3. Patient Experience Starts With the Parking Garage

At the Beryl Institute Patient Experience conference last week, plenty of speakers mentioned the physical environment’s impact on the patient experience. But it wasn’t their focus.They were more concerned with process improvement, utilizing things like patient mapping, staff training, and focus groups to change how hospital staff members interact with patients...>>Read more

2. The Future of Healthcare Design is Not Hospitality

There’s been lots of chatter lately about the blurring lines between healthcare design and hospitality design. But I don’t think the lines are blurring.  Here’s why. Hospitals aren’t hotels and never have been, nor never will be hotels...>>Read more

1. Connecting With Patients

I shared this video from the Cleveland Clinic last week on my LinkedIn status update, but it’s so good, I’m sharing it again. The reason it’s so good is that it simply and poignantly tells makes the point that every patient, every staff member, and every visitor to a hospital has their own story to tell...>>Read more

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