MCKINNEY, Texas, Feb. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- For some
families across the United States,
quality medical care—whether for a routine checkup or a serious
injury—can be hard to come by. But when a new healthcare facility
for an underserved community is opened, providing a space for
services is just the beginning. In addition to facilitating quality
care, the experience must be designed in a way that reduces anxiety
and confronts the preexisting negative perceptions many underserved
individuals may have about healthcare.
Herman Miller (NASDAQ: MLHR), along with leading architects from
MASS Design Group, SmithGroup, Corgan, and Kimley-Horn, and teams
from KDC, Rogers-O'Brien Construction, Cross Engineering
Consultants, and L.A. Fuess Partners, were tasked with this
challenge as they worked with the North Texas Family Health
Foundation to build the community of McKinney, Texas a facility that exuded
respect, quality, and a commitment to serving every individual
equally.
The North Texas Family Health Foundation was founded with a goal
of ensuring that every member of the community has access to
essential primary healthcare and a medical home. The Foundation's
first project, Family Health Center on Virginia, has created a new model that
fundamentally reimagines how to provide primary care resources for
the underserved. By raising local funds to build the new facility
and cover start-up costs, the Foundation and their partners are
supporting the creation of a sustainable community resource.
"We wanted to make primary care available to everyone in the
community, regardless of their ability to pay. Health and wellness
bolster educational achievement, positively impact employment
opportunities, and support a stronger, healthier community," said
Kate Perry, DrPH, MS, AICP, and
Senior Vice President and Senior Director for Healthy Communities
for Independent Financial, catalyst and lead donor for the project.
"Beyond this, we also wanted to create a community-oriented
space where everyone would feel welcome, cared for, and loved."
"The success of this project wasn't creating an efficient, safe
and state of the art facility—meeting those checkpoints was the
starting point," says Michelle
Ossmann, PhD, MSN, and Director of Healthcare Knowledge and
Insights at Herman Miller. "True success meant that, whether in the
lobby, a clinical room, or exiting the building, every visitor
recognizes the design of this space was centered on them."
"Our goal was to design a medical home for the community with
cues both large and small that signal the space is human-centered.
It should make people feel welcome and give them a sense of
dignity," said David Saladik, Senior
Principal with MASS Design Group and the architect of record on the
project.
In the wake of the unveiling of this brand new facility, named
the Family Health Center on Virginia, Herman Miller has released a case
study detailing four of the key ways the experience of care was
elevated to serve the community of McKinney. With over 50 years of research in
healthcare environments, Herman Miller was able to help create exam
spaces that encouraged comfortable, engaging interactions, and gave
insight into how the design of clinical spaces can build trust
between patients and clinicians.
"Details matter. Even changing something seemingly small, like
expanding the size of exam rooms to accommodate visitors with
companions and/or children in order to assure that families
visiting the clinic of all sizes feel comfortable and able to move
around, add up to make a huge difference," says Ossmann. "True
medical care isn't just about solving the problem—it's about
fostering trust, honesty, and confidence, and having patients leave
feeling heard and at peace."
To help create a people-centric healthcare experience, Herman
Miller worked with interior design firms SmithGroup and Corgan. The
Herman Miller furnishings selected from the company's healthcare
line offer provides comfort and support as people wait for
appointments or family members. All furnishings are easy to
rearrange, allowing for different types of gatherings or to support
physical distancing when needed. The Corgan design team also
selected an intentional mix of vibrant and neutral colors to soothe
and uplift.
Patients aren't the only people who deserve a healthcare space
that feels like home. The staff lounge was designed to provide
clinicians and other team members with a sense of respite.
Staff can store personal items or gather for a bite to eat.
Easy-to-move stools provide a place to perch and eat lunch or catch
up with colleagues.
Modularity also played a big role in the design. Every space was
outfitted with furniture that either clinicians or patients and
their family members can easily rearrange, depending on the type of
interaction they want to have. In the community spaces in the
Family Health Center, furnishings include mobile tables and
durable, comfortable chairs and lounge seating that allow people to
circle up or spread out. In exam rooms and the dental lab, the team
leveraged Mora, a casework solution that's purposefully designed to
change. If the function of a space needs to shift, Mora is simple
to modify, meaning the staff will avoid the need to shut down the
entire building for an extensive overhaul.
Save for a few exceptions, Herman Miller was the sole casework
and furniture partner for the Family Health Center. The design team
created diverse settings across the facility—including clinical
rooms, workspaces, and common areas—all with a consistent aesthetic
and experience, and from one supplier, which eliminates unwanted
variables, delays, and complexity while making replacements,
redesigns, and repairs an easy phone call.
"By working with Herman Miller and WRG (A Herman Miller dealer
partner), we had a streamlined, single point of contact that made
all the moving parts come together more efficiently and that saved
significant time and energy overall," said Perry. "A single source
for communication, planning, and execution helped us more
effectively meet our milestones and fully support the clinic team's
successful transition to the new building."
About Herman Miller
Herman Miller is a globally recognized leader in design. Since
its inception in 1905, the company's innovative, problem-solving
designs and furnishings have inspired the best in people wherever
they live, work, learn, heal, and play. In 2018, Herman Miller
created Herman Miller Group, a purposefully selected, complementary
family of brands that includes Colebrook Bosson Saunders, Design
Within Reach, Geiger, HAY, Maars Living Walls, Maharam, naughtone,
and Nemschoff. Guided by a shared purpose—design for the good of
humankind—Herman Miller Group shapes places that matter for
customers while contributing to a more equitable and sustainable
future for all. For more information visit
www.hermanmiller.com/about-us.
About the North Texas Family Health Foundation
The North Texas Family Health Foundation is a 501(c)3
not-for-profit organization that works to build stronger, healthier
communities through strategic public-private partnerships focused
on sustainable solutions. The Foundation is led by a Board of
Trustees that handles strategic and fiduciary oversight to advance
its mission and meet its goals of combining efforts, shared
knowledge and financial resources across sectors (public, private
and non-profit), governments (state and local) and individual
donors in an effort to increase access to healthcare.
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SOURCE Herman Miller, Inc.