Tailor-made Healthcare For Women
As a healthcare architecture firm, REES helps support the needs of providers and patients in a single facility. To do that, our Healthcare Design Team engages end-users in the earliest stages of planning. The result is a facility that successfully meets the needs end-users and healthcare providers.
Mercy Love Family Women’s Tower in Oklahoma City
Partnering in Research
Mercy and REES have partnered on nearly 125 projects spanning 36 years, yet no two projects have been identical. With each project comes different objectives and needs from Mercy, its medical staff, their patients and families. During the earliest stages of planning, Mercy assembles focus groups of specific demographics to gain insight and fully understand what they must offer as a healthcare provider. REES uses the resulting data, evidence and information of this pointed research to drive our design.
Mothers Influence New Women’s Healthcare Center
When it opens in 2023, Mercy’s Love Family Women’s Tower in Oklahoma City will be the first in the state to offer comprehensive women’s services in one place. The REES-designed Women’s Tower will be a four-story, 175,000-square foot facility connecting to the existing hospital on the Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City campus. It will serve as the destination for women’s health services.
As part of our team’s exploratory process, Mercy assembled a focus group made up of mothers ranging in age. Each of these women had delivered their babies at different hospitals in the region. Their varied experiences were thoroughly studied by Mercy and REES’ Healthcare Design Team.
These women were polled for their opinions and thoughts on their previous healthcare experiences. Some discussion and poll topics included:
- What would you change about your labor and delivery experience?
- What services were offered during that experience?
- Based on your labor and delivery experience, how can an experience in a hospital be improved or elevated?
- What does comprehensive care mean?
- What is comprehensive women’s care?
- What services do you expect from a women’s center?
- How can an overall visit to the hospital be improved?
- How can the experience be improved for your family?
The REES Healthcare Design Team used the discussions and poll results to design a facility catering to comprehensive women’s health. Below are a few key takeaways:
Designing for Privacy and Noise Control
The study concluded that patient privacy and noise were some of the key issues of the focus group. REES incorporated design elements such as private rooms and noise buffers to address the issues important to the focus group.
Comprehensive Services
The women suggested services to be included in a facility intending to provide comprehensive health services focused on the whole woman and her medical needs. Based on the feedback, our Healthcare Design Team included spaces designated for breast feeding, hormonal therapy, lab work, bereavement services and women’s mental health services.
When the Mercy Love Family Women’s Tower opens in the fall of 2023, we will be excited to see patients and families experience the facility whose design was heavily influenced by their peers.
If you are looking to renovate or design a new healthcare space, reach out to us at info@rees.com. We look forward to hearing from you!