Health Designers
The Center for Health Design is continually seeking new and more effective ways to promote the widespread development of life-enhancing health care environments and the benefits these bring to human well-being.
One of the several activities that the center engages in to facilitate and accelerate this development is the initiation of international study tours. These study tours fall into two categories: those that inbound (from outside the United States); and outbound (from the United States to other countries).
Of the 4,000 or more individuals who have attended programs of the center since 1988, a significant percentage have come from outside our country. Each year, in conjunction with its annual Symposium on Healthcare Design, the center arranges four or five formal study tours that accommodate 20 people each. This year, study tours will arrive from China, Japan, Mexico, the United Kingdom and most likely Holland, Italy, Southeast Asia and Sweden.
A typical study tour arrives a day before the symposium begins for a briefing dinner so that the participants can better understand what they are about to experience. They attend the symposium for its full four days and then proceed to a pre-arranged travel itinerary of five to seven days, visiting exemplary health care facilities and professional firms across the United States. The focus of the entire program is to enable the participants to bring home and implement "design technology" that will result in better quality health care. Each study tour is arranged to respond to a theme that represents the particular interest of the group.
One successful study tour participant is Liz Clappinson of the United Kingdom. Clappison attended the symposium two years ago as part of a 24-person group that was interested in patient-focused design. Inspired by her experience, she sought the center's assistance for a follow-up visit. Upon returning home, she initiated a highly innovative home health care stroke rehabilitation program at her hospital, for which she won the annual national competition of the Hewlett-Packard Golden Helix Award. As the national winner, Clappison was sent to Geneva, Switzerland, to compete with other national winners from throughout Europe. There, she won the top prize for the entire European Community for her project. (Clappison will present a workshop at the Eighth Symposium to inspire all of us to be program and design innovators.)
The Center also has offered two outbound study tours in the past seven years. The first was a three-week tour through five countries in Western Europe; and the second was a two-week tour through the former Soviet Union.
In addition, dozens of foreigners and U.S. citizens have been assisted throughout the years in developing itineraries to visit exemplary health care facilities and professional firms. These are developed on a case-by-case basis, as they are requested. It is our policy to provide technical assistance for no charge for this and other resource identification services.
Because of the center's experience in sending so many individuals into the field to learn from what already exists as a basis to inform and improve future generations of health care design, its research committee saw that specific guidelines were needed to improve the rigor and effectiveness of the field visit. Accordingly, the center retained Craig Zimring, Ph.D., of the Georgia Institute of Technology, to engage in a one-year research project that resulted in the publication of A Guide to Conducting Healthcare Facility Site Visits. This simple report provides a recommended practice and easy-to-use forms in preparing for, conducting and following up on field visits. Copies of the 96-page report are available for $27.
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