There’s always one final step before freedom, and one thing that isn’t always avoidable is a trip to the hospital. However, there’s still the opportunity for a Transport and Discharge Suite to be comfortable and accommodating for everyone within- this is something that Shropshire architect firm, Johnson Design Partnership understands.
The team at JDP are always keen to prove their more-than-adequate skills in drawing up building plans that propose a suitable, sustainable, innovative and functional Transport and Discharge Suite, but that they can provide a space that helps both patient and staff feel more than just cogs in a machine, and crucially: not in distress.
JDP are no strangers to healthcare architect projects, having successfully completed many projects in this sector to date, including The Discharge Lounge Waiting Area & Transport Suite at the Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead, London. JDP has also completed several West Midlands architect projects in the healthcare sector.
JDP take great care in ensuring that no two projects are a 1:1 copy of another. They aim to provide both staff and patients with an environment that feels unique to them, or at the very least to the area and community around them. This includes any projects related to designing for healthcare architecture. To JDP, each project isn’t just something to tick off their list; it’s a chance to help foster a sense of community spirit amongst patients and staff.
Spacing in a Transport and Discharge Suite is key. Having an open internal space allows patients and staff to often have a 360-degree view of their surroundings. It’s functional, allowing patients to have a view of staff at all times, and vice versa. Staff duties can be carried out whilst they keep an eye on other patients, and comfort patients, that someone is always close by. Patients can feel engaged with the ongoing events around them, which can help time pass and distract them from their current situation. Translation- nosy parkers will be kept busy!
Discharge Lounge, Waiting area and Transport Suite for Royal Free Hospital, London
Wayfinding & Disability Architecture
Clear signage is always worth considering, especially in hospital design architect projects. You don’t want poor Simon thinking he’s headed home only to walk down a corridor and through a door leading to heart surgery. That’d give him quite the fright!
To minimise the chance of this happening, arrows that clearly highlight areas for staff members to welcome, serve, help, access and provide services for patients, visitors, other staff, etc. are often effective. JDP, incorporating these into their own project,s has proved successful and further shows their understanding of how best to suit everyone’s needs.
There’s no use having signs up if this space isn’t easily accessible and hassle-free to navigate. This is a priority for JDP. It’s important to consider disability architecture. If there’s a lift nearby that patients (and staff) can use to help bring them down to the Transport and Discharge Suite, as stairs may prove difficult. Supports on hand rails are also a key inclusion for disability architecture. Chairs that feel softer than a marshmallow are often favoured by patients, helping them relax in this final stage before they leave the hospital, not this mortal coil! Readily available mobility equipment is also essential.
Having artwork on the walls might not seem like a key component of hospital design architect projects, but it is. Art that’s unique to the local area, alongside windows, reminds patients and staff of the community they are part of. Both these things help to make a Transport and Discharge Suite feel less like a clinical place, and instead one that’s a bit more like home. Admittedly, you probably still want to be in your actual home, but JDP understand this isn’t always possible. What they also understand is that people aren’t just a number on a spreadsheet, and their surroundings shouldn’t feel like a factory.
Colour research as part of a new signage and wayfinding strategy for Royal Free Hospital, London.
Hygiene is also important. Appropriate health and hygiene products, alongside certain facilities, and safe but accessible areas for medical equipment and storage of hazardous materials, can make all the difference to the experience in the Transport and Discharge Suite.
Providing showers where possible, ensuring toilets are accessible and plentiful, and that anti-bacterial gel and sanitary face-masks are readily available too are all ways of ensuring this. JDP understands these are things both patients and staff are grateful to have- hence incorporating them in previous healthcare architect projects to great success.
Choose JDP as Your Hospital Design Architect
With a proven track record, not only with hospital design architect projects but in other sectors too, JDP are clearly doing something right. One of their ethos of bringing innovative and sustainable projects to life to is clearly benefiting a wide range of people.
Projects such as designing a Transport and Discharge Suite allow Shropshire architects JDP to prove that their architectural design services can put their money where their mouth is, It shows their genuine passion for what they do and commitment to helping others, not just in the short term, but for generations to come.
Transport and discharge lounge. Image by Johnson Design Partnership
