Built for Hope, Care, and Cures
Seattle Children’s, Friends of Costco Building: Cancer and Critical Care Expansion
Healthcare
The 330,000 SF, eight-story Friends of Costco Building at Seattle Children’s expands pediatric in-patient and emergency care in the region while preparing the hospital campus for its next generation of care on the site. After completing the Long Range/Major Institution Master Plan to expand the campus by 1 million SF, ZGF programmed and designed the Friends of Costco Building. Friends of Costco Building houses a ground floor emergency department, an intensive care level and two cancer care units. There are 80 beds, with the capacity to expand to accommodate up to 192 beds. Level 8 is home to the country’s first dedicated inpatient cancer care unit for teens and young adults. Landscaping and outdoor enhancements contribute to a sense of well-being and healing.
Location
Seattle, WA
Square Feet
330,000
Completion date
2013
Project Component
Architecture services
Master planning
Interior design and space planning
Certifications
LEED Gold®
Using a Lean, cross-functional approach, the design team engaged a diverse group of over 200 caregivers and family representatives at more than 20 Integrated Design Events to evaluate existing care models, identify areas of waste and improvement, work through process refinement options, and develop design solutions to deliver an operationally efficient patient-centered care environment.
The process resulted in a design that tripled the time caregivers provide in-room treatment to from 26% to 76%, reduced caregiver travel distances by 80% and supply search time by 90%. Strategies implemented include just-in-time supply and medication delivery, medication preparation in the patient room, in-room charting, flexible furniture systems, demountable partitions, unobstructed views across the unit to patient rooms, and clear wayfinding.
Each eight-bed neighborhood has access to the same central resources, including open and closed team spaces for collaboration, medications, nourishment, supplies and equipment. This creates a “simple to navigate” environment and minimizes travel distances for patients, families, staff and supplies. Universal room design provides maximum operational efficiency to accommodate a wide range of acuity levels, or a change in services. A variety of spaces also accommodate ‘rounding’ of teaching teams at bedside, in circulation nodes and in care team zones. The concept for an extremely narrow building core supports “just-in-time” delivery of supplies and improved visibility, while allowing daylight to filter across the entire unit.