In a joint venture with Covenant HealthCare, Mary Free Bed has created a destination rehabilitation facility for inpatients and outpatients of the greater Saginaw region. This facility attracts patients and visitors, increases the efficiency of the staff by improving flow, and increases care team integration and engagement from staff and the community.
HED’s design team embraced the challenge of creating an “environment of care” – where every aspect of the physical space supports the concepts of rehabilitation, restoration and rejuvenation. Working with the program manager in a mutually supportive LEAN/evidence-based design process, HED developed spatial experiences for the patients, family, and staff that support these goals.
One of the first experiences that this facility offers as you enter the site from Cooper Street is the therapeutic North Garden, which includes activities for children and adults. Entering the building, you are greeted by bold and inspiring colors that accent the natural tones at the foundation of the building’s interior.
Patients are greeted and assisted as needed through check-in and accommodated in an open, welcoming patient and family support area bathed in natural light, featuring a ceiling-hung glass sculpture, with views of the North Garden. The corridors leading to the outpatient functions are incorporated and utilized as therapy spaces including a Zero-G ceiling track anti-gravity mobility system. Natural light and visual access to nature is also featured in most of the outpatient areas that provide supportive experiences for the functions being performed.
Artwork is utilized as a therapeutic feature incorporated throughout the facility to support the rehabilitative process. Installations include inspirational messages in the functional areas, super-graphics of local nature scenes at the headwall of all the inpatient bedrooms, and photographs of patients and staff working together to reach their mutually developed goals located strategically throughout the facility to reinforce the commitment of the organization to provide the ultimate patient experience.
