Clemson research center awarded prestigious Touchstone award

Clemson University’s Center for Health Facilities Design and Testing (CHFDT) has received a Touchstone Award in the Silver Category from the Center for Health Design (CHD) for their research and evaluation work with Indiana University Health (IU Health).

The CHFDT will receive the Silver Touchstone Award at the American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE) Planning Design and Construction (PDC) Summit in Atlanta on March 11. The award will be presented to the Director of the CHFDT, Anjali Joseph and Christi Cornelius from IU Health, for their collaborative work on designing a patient room prototype for IU Health’s new replacement hospital in downtown Indianapolis.

“The Silver Touchstone Award recognition underscores the power of research-driven design in shaping the future of healthcare environments,” said Jim Stevens, Director of Clemson’s School of Architecture. “The CHFDT team’s work exemplifies the impact that thoughtful collaboration and rigorous evaluation can have in creating spaces that enhance patient care and staff efficiency.”

Touchstone award jurors determined that the CHFDT project with IU Health demonstrated achievement across the three touchstones of the evidence-based design process: collaboration, evaluation and sharing. ASHE is the largest association devoted to professionals designing, building, maintaining and operating hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

IU Health recently undertook a large healthcare facility design project for a new hospital that is consolidating two existing hospitals within the IU Health system. The Clemson University Graduate Program in Architecture + Health and the CHFDT collaborated with IU Health and its planning team of clinicians, administrators and design professionals on the prototype design and systematic evaluation of a standardized inpatient room for a large healthcare facility design project undertaken by IU Health for a new hospital that will consolidate two existing hospitals within the IU Health system.

The CHFDT team utilized an Evidence-Based Design (EBD) process, which included a literature review and multi-phase simulation-based evaluations of physical mockups. CHFDT conducted four rounds of simulation-based evaluations between August 2022 and February 2023.

According to Anjali Joseph, Director of CHFDT, the project’s purpose was to systematically evaluate the different design options through a collaborative multidisciplinary simulation-based evaluation approach and to provide specific recommendations regarding an optimal solution for a patient room prototype for the hospital project.

“The project goal was to design a patient room that could support staff effectiveness, staff workflows, patient safety and patient experience,” explained Joseph. “In each phase of the simulation evaluation, evaluation tools and metrics were developed based on available evidence to address EBD goals and objectives. The simulation-based evaluations of the patient room prototype were all structured around identifying how different patient room design features impacted patient outcomes, which we discovered in our literature review.”

In addition to the core interdisciplinary team, several stakeholders were involved. They included the nursing leadership team, simulation experts, patient advocates, respiratory therapists, nurses, physicians, technicians, therapists and frontline clinicians in intensive care and medical-surgical units.

“In today’s construction world, managing costs is essential,” Joseph shared. “For the IU Health hospital project, the primary focus of the inpatient room was to improve both the clinical team and patient experiences while considering budget and structural constraints.”

According to Joseph, the IU Health project evolved in scope over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, recognizing the hospital’s role as the state’s primary referral center during crises. As IU Health undertook this project, they realized that patient room prototypes became critical due to the growing need for flexibility and acute care.

Joseph stated, “Patient rooms are replicated hundreds of times in hospitals, and it is critical to address any workflow challenges and safety risks that may arise due to room design while still in the design process.”