The Clinician’s Perspective

Our Healthcare Planning team has a unique role in the healthcare design and architecture industry. Outside of planning what equipment should be used in each unique situation, Cripe’s Healthcare Planning team is also often in charge of project and move/relocation management.

We have enhanced our Healthcare Planning team by adding clinical expertise, Erin Purcell, RN, MHA. Erin has nearly 20 years of hands on experience in a hospital as both a clinician and a project coordinator. This was a dynamic move that has and will continue to aid our team. Having a clinician on staff is one of the many things that differentiates Cripe from other firms. We now have an insider’s understanding of the healthcare system that can only come with years of hands on experience.

In both her previous role and with Cripe, Erin utilizes Lean Methodology and her Six Sigma Green Belt Certificate to manage and facilitate the creation of workflows, design, construction, activation and go-live of the project team.

Having a clinician on our team opens so many doors of comprehension between the design and planning team and the hospital staff. Both parties are more easily able to understand one another. They are also able to communicate their unique needs, confident that those needs will be appreciated. This puts everyone involved on more solid ground and closes the gap for misunderstandings.

“The ultimate goal of any project is to bring a vision to life through design. This can be quite complicated in healthcare as you often have two groups (design team and clinicians) that speak very different languages. Being the go between often requires wearing several hats: educator, translator, coordinator, advocate, facilitator and resource as you navigate through the design process. This collaboration builds relationships and trust, let’s all involved feel they contributed to the success of the project while providing a healing environment for both patients and team members.” – Erin Purcell, RN, MHA

Below are some ways in which our team now utilizes the clinician’s point of view and experience to enhance the design process overall:

How can a clinician be utilized throughout the design process?

Schematic Design:
• Help develop functional narrative
• Educate providers on process, phases and activities
• Evaluate schematic design (SD) to ensure clinician’s input has been included
• Collect feedback and summarize for design teams
• Work with clinicians to evaluate new proposed layout and identify areas for
change
• Improve on old processes
• Record to assure these are carried over to clinical activation

Detailed Design:
• Help clinicians understand equipment and design choices
• Facilitate Decision making and acceptance process
• Ensure coordination with communication systems
• Nurse call, infant security, patient video monitoring, wireless devices, central
displays, etc.
• Help establish communication plan-graphics, newsletter, etc.

How can a clinician’s input be valuable in areas not known as part of the traditional design process?

Transition Planning:
• Enact and verify operational processes defined during design process
• Assistance coordinating operational planning teams
• Assist with day in the life (DIL) planning and execution

Patient Moves:
• Create move sequencing schedule and logistics

Activation:
• Create and lead command center
• Go live support
• Daily reports to leadership

Decommissioning:
• Create and oversee decommissioning plan

Post Occupancy Evaluation:
• Follow up surveys, interviews, observations, to determine success of project

 

 

 

A little about Cripe’s clinician on staff, Erin Purcell, RN, MHA:

Erin Purcell, RN, MHA, worked for 11 years as a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nurse where she created individualized healthcare plans for patients. Erin helped design current and future state workflows that informed the design for the Simon Family Tower at Riley. This turned into a full-time position on the Simon Family Tower project team.

Erin has brought an entirely unique background to Cripe and specifically the Healthcare Planning team. We have always understood our clients and the unique challenges that can be present when working in the healthcare system.

Things are ever changing in our world right now and that is even more true in the healthcare world, however Cripe is committed to always understanding the unique challenges and visions of each client. We are always making strides to be the best client advocates we can be and Erin is proof of that as she understand both sides of these healthcare planning projects from both the clinician and planning side.

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