We don’t know how long it will take before social distancing is unnecessary, especially in healthcare environments. This makes it critical to act now to anticipate upcoming needs. How do we protect vulnerable populations and how do we protect essential staff, while at the same time making new spaces viable over the long-term? We’ve started working with our clients to produce solutions that will encourage social distancing now and allow adaptability later without compromising design. Furniture solutions allow flexibility in both short- and long-term scenarios.
“How do we protect vulnerable populations and how do we protect essential staff, while at the same time making new spaces viable over the long-term?”
Finding solutions through furniture…
Adapting from established furniture solutions, we’ve been working with NYU Langone Health on modifications to their Chelsea Medical Group in Manhattan. We asked the question: How do we afford patients, visitors, and staff alike equal protection? And how do we do that without fundamentally changing the architecture? Reducing the clinical volume in the long term would be problematic, making a flexible strategy necessary. We had started with a viable design pre-pandemic, and rapidly reevaluated it. Recognizing a pandemic is a short-term problem as compared to the lifetime of the space, it was paramount to incorporate what was necessary now to treat patients, and what is necessary later to maintain a viable business model.
Preserving productivity and workflow…
We first looked at workflow, noting adequate staffing was more critical than ever to the successful functioning of the practice. Making sure they were protected from each other, we made continuous run desking to maximize flexibility and allow 6-foot spacing now, while still allowing more staff to be fit in in the future. Then, we added removable counter-mounted screens between the stations. This will ensure in their workspaces, when PPE may not be a viable option, they have physical barriers in addition to sufficient spacing for increased protection.
In the waiting area a different approach was needed. We realized abandoning dense tandem seating altogether would prove problematic over the long term, so instead we opted to modify it, replacing intermediate seats with ganged tables, never having more than one or two seats together for patients who required a caregiver. This strategy would allow the density to be increased in the future without replacing the entirety of the seating, and still making it challenging for patients or staff to reconfigure on a whim. We applied the same concept to the banquette along the focal wall, introducing tables that could be replaced with additional seats in the future.
Collaboration with Kimball…
Perhaps the highlight, is our collaboration with Kimball to combine Pairings Nook and Pairings Health, and with some modification make it into a healthcare and social distancing appropriate product. Visibility was paramount, and it was necessary for the reception desk to be able to see every person in the waiting area. Sight-lines were carefully considered, and decorative glazed panels were introduced. Since pairings is modular, with just a few new parts a nook can transform into an open lounge piece, saving money over the long term.
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