As Healthcare Facility Design Evolves, So Should the Building Products Used Throughout

Openings from ASSA ABLOY rise to the challenge

Facility design impacts many facets of the healthcare industry, influencing everything from patient outcomes to building operational efficiency and accreditation success. ASSA ABLOY is continuously developing new solutions that address many common design challenges.

The form and function of healthcare facilities is rapidly changing. Evidence-based design principles stress the importance of aesthetics and soothing environs. The green building movement places a premium on sustainability. Patient demographic trends necessitate buildings that accommodate an older population segment. ASSA ABLOY responds to these influential design forces with innovative door and hardware products. 

Evidence-Based Design

According to the Center for Health Design, evidence-based healthcare designs are used to create environments that are therapeutic, supportive of family involvement, efficient for staff performance, and restorative for workers under stress.

The current school of thought is that evidence-based healthcare design should result in demonstrated improvements in a healthcare organization’s clinical outcomes, economic performance, productivity, customer satisfaction, and cultural measures. Hence the growing popularity of hospitals that appear more like hotels.

Evidence-based design seeks to create a therapeutic environment by eliminating visual stressors and emphasizing pleasant décor right down to the smallest details, including doors and hardware. This design principle does not override patient safety or lessen the strict security requirements of a hospital. But it does encourage facilities to seek out security and life-safety solutions that blend in with the rest of the décor. Decorative doors and hardware can contribute to this desired setting.

Sustainability

Sustainable building practices are the new norm in the construction industry. This growing acceptance of green building standards has led to greater use of building products that minimize the impact on the environment. Doors, frames and hardware can help construction professionals address specific sections of these tough building standards without straying from evidenced based design principles.

Doorways can boost energy efficiency by improving building envelope thermal performance. This can be accomplished with doors and hardware designed to block heat/cold transfer, including insulated doors, thermal-brake frames, kerf frames, and gasketing/weatherstripping.

Materials and resources sections of sustainable construction standards can be met by selecting doors and hardware made from high percentages of recycled content, certified wood and rapidly renewable materials such as agrifiber.