In late 2019 the team at AHW HQ released the newest Healthcare Week Report (if you missed it you can grab a copy here). The report found that as we move into the new decade the healthcare sector is experiencing a great deal of disruption. This disruption is driven by empowered consumers - change agents who have high expectations of the healthcare ecosystem and of their healthcare providers.

Through a survey of over 100 Australian healthcare professionals the report determined which hospital design and development trends were deemed the most effective at driving the experiences the modern, connected and informed patient wants from their healthcare provider. What has emerged as the biggest contributor to wellbeing, patient experience and care is the stress free environment.

Ahead of the Health Facilities Design and Development Summit 2020 we take a look at the five design trends Australian healthcare professionals have deemed key to creating stress free, patient-centric healthcare environments. Read on to learn more about each trend and explore use cases and practical applications for each.

The unprecedented emergence and impact of COVID-19 is putting immense strain on Australia’s hospitals and healthcare system. 2020 has been a year like no other, as healthcare leaders race to quickly mobilise the workforce to cope with this unprecedented health crisis, and adjust in real-time the way we deliver care, design our hospitals and utilise new technologies.

For the fifth year running, in partnership with healthcare industry leaders, Australian Healthcare Week has conducted a survey that represents the industry’s key opportunities and challenges for the year ahead. In the last few months, we surveyed 120 leaders from across the Australian healthcare industry to uncover how they are responding to COVID-19, and the forces of change set to transform healthcare now, and in the years to come.

This exclusive report, compiled with insights from over 120+ Australian healthcare executives, explores the key healthcare investment areas and delves into the core drivers of change currently shaping the Australian healthcare industry, including:

• COVID-19: Preparing and responding to major disruption
• Rethinking the way we design, build and future-proof health facilities
• Training, up-skilling and retaining the healthcare workforce to become pandemic-ready
• Innovation and transformation through digital healthcare

It goes without saying, the bigger a project, the more complex it is, and hospitals, with their enormous budgets, multi-year timeframes and thousands of stakeholders - whether redeveloping or building new – are by their very nature an expensive, complex and time consuming venture that pose hundreds of challenges. It is these challenges, and the reaction and planning of a project delivery team to them, that ultimately impacts the seamlessness of hospital infrastructure delivery.

With this in mind, ahead of the Health Facilities Design and Development Summit and Australian Healthcare Week 2019 we chat to Paul Lambert, Executive Director, Activation, New Royal Adelaide Project at the Central Adelaide Local Health Network in South Australia.

Adelaide BioMed City, located at the western end of North Terrace in Adelaide CBD, is one of the largest health science clusters in the southern hemisphere of its kind. The South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, The University of Adelaide’s Health and Medical Sciences facility, The University of South Australia’s Health Innovations site, the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, the world’s most expensive, and one of the most digitally advanced hospitals, and the new $1.95 billion Women's and Children's Hospital utilise their proximity to collaborate on research, education, clinical care and business development.

To manage this growth, and continue delivering superior healthcare to their residents, SESLHD engages a Strategy and Planning Team to inform all decision, prioritise investment areas and help fill service and capability gaps to ensure their Health Service effectively meets need for years to come.

Currently SESLHD has two major infrastructure projects underway. The St George Hospital Redevelopment has seen over $700m invested since 2011 and includes the construction of a new $211m Acute Services Building, and the Randwick Prince of Wales Campus project, which sees an investment of over $720m. 

Ahead of the Health Facilities Design and Development Summit 2020 we chat to Julie Dixon, Director Planning, Population Health and Equity as well as Health Planners, Wendy Uptin and Alison Sneddon from the SESLHD’s Strategy and Planning Team to learn more about the planning works supporting these large-scale infrastructure investments.

Julie, Wendy and Alison further discuss how the planning team is developing integrated health service plans to inform capital developments which focus on shifting care into the community and ensure patients receive care in the right care setting. 

Project delays, cost blowouts, poor stakeholder engagement and communication breakdowns are but a few of the problems faced in delivering any large-scale infrastructure project. With careful planning, clear communication, strategic stakeholder engagement initiatives though many of these pitfalls can be avoided. 

With this in mind, ahead of the Health Facilities Design and Development Summit and Australian Healthcare Week 2020 we chat to Hannah Seymour, Medical Director at Fiona Stanley Hospital in Western Australia, Paul Lambert, Executive Director, Activation, New Royal Adelaide Project at the Central Adelaide Local Health Network in South Australia and Toni Peggrem, Executive Director of Strategy and Planning at Gold Coast Health.

At 2.3 billion, 2 billion and 1.76 billion respectively these projects exemplify the large-scale, complex healthcare infrastructure being constructed around the country. And with Gold Coast University Hospital operational since 2013, Fiona Stanley operational since 2014 and new Royal Adelaide since 2017, and the kind of wisdom that only comes with hindsight, those involved with the delivery of these projects are ready to share their journey and lessons learned to help aid other Australian projects.

Download the exclusive eBook to learn more. 

The NSW Government is investing $470 million in delivering the new Maitland Hospital, a leading facility that will help meet growing health service needs for the surrounding communities of the Hunter Valley now and into the future.

The existing hospital in Maitland is no longer conducive to contemporary patient care. The new Maitland Hospital will offer a wider range of services  including emergency care, surgical services, critical care, maternity services, paediatric care, cardiac catheterisation, inpatient beds, mental health, rehabilitation services, palliative care and outpatient clinics, and, for the first time will also offer the region’s first chemotherapy service.

To learn more about the project we spoke to Gillian Geraghty, Executive Director, Rural and Regional at NSW Health Infrastructure , who shared her insights into the challenges of a greenfield development, and delves into the stakeholder and community engagement initiatives helping overcome these and drive contemporary care in NSW’ Hunter region.   

While infrastructure projects and technological advancements will continue to revolutionise care delivery, patient experience and traditional workflows, with 2018 coming to a close what new trends are set to shape healthcare in 2019 and beyond?

To understand and answer this question, ahead of the 9^th Annual Australian Healthcare Week Summit 2019, we surveyed 116 Australian and New Zealand healthcare professionals from a cross-section of the industry, to find out what they think the major are the innovations, challenges and opportunities that will fundamentally transform healthcare in the coming years.

Who should healthcare facilities be designed for? The patient, or the clinician? This question is undoubtedly a stumbling block for many. While patient centricity, comfort and convenience is key to optimal care, if clinicians aren’t kept in mind through the design and development phase of any project, whether structural or technological, how are they expected to effectively navigate the infrastructure and deliver care?

Ahead of Australian Healthcare Week, and The Great Debate, held on the Health Facilities Design and Development stage, we speak to two expert speakers, Ian Town, Chairman of the Christchurch Health Precinct Advisory Board and Gordon Bingham, Chief Nursing Information Officer at Allied Health. Harking back to their high school debating years, our panel aims to enlighten, encourage deeper thinking, offer critical perspectives, and maybe even coerce you into seeing their point of view.