Healthcare in the Borderland

If you live in the greater El Paso/Las Cruces/Cd. Juarez region, it is hard to ignore the expanding healthcare presence. From brand new hospitals, to exponential expansions, to new medical campuses, the impact is already being felt. El Paso presents a very unique environment, being a large border town and sitting alongside a military installation. This presents unique opportunities for research, healthcare delivery, biomedical manufacturing and recruiting advantages.

Medical Center of the Americas Biomedical Research & Technology Park

Key to establishing the park is the development of a biomedical research and technology building, also called "MCA Tech Building." This building will house office suites, principal investigator offices, incubator space, laboratories, core research elements, prototyping laboratories and/or machine shop facilities, and flex space that can be built out for specific tenants’ needs. Tenants may include public, private, for-profit and nonprofit researchers who will be poised to collaborate with regional institutions to discover medical breakthroughs and to move them from "bench to bedside." This state-of-the-art facility will be the first of a series of at least three buildings developed in the research park.

William Beaumont Army Medical Center Replacement Hospital

The $966-million complex, due to open in 2016, is shaping up to be a visually stunning structure that embraces the principles of sustainable and evidence-based design, energy conservation, and green construction while offering cutting-edge, patient-centered care. Think smart-room technology, renewable energy, use of the least toxic materials, natural light, and soothing interiors. Blending World-Class design, evidence-based design, and sustainable design guidelines, and underscoring it all with Sustainable Return on Investment, is a natural fit. These strategies are expected to lead to improvements in patient satisfaction, safety, infection control, and preservation of resources.

University Medical Center—Children’s Hospital

Until November of 2007, El Paso remained the largest city in the United States without a separately licensed facility dedicated to the pediatric population. Today, El Paso Children’s Hospital partnerships with the Medical Center of the Americas, the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and University Medical Center of El Paso enhances the lives of children from the greater El Paso area and surrounding region through its innovative pediatric research and education and serves as a teaching institution. El Paso Children’s Hospital has recruited over 30 Pediatric Subspecialists and is actively recruiting more Pediatric Subspecialists.

Sierra Providence East—Expansion

To meet the area’s growing needs, Sierra Providence East Medical Center is adding to its facilities. The estimates $67 million project, which is expected to ass 145,000 square feet to the existing hospital, is already underway. The expansion, expected to be completed by 2014, will add a four-story second building that will have 30 medical beds and 30 surgical beds. The expansion will also add 12 beds to the cardiovascular intensive-care unit at the hospital’s main building and add 11 beds to the emergency department. Additional rooms will be used as classrooms, a cafe and administrative offices.

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center—Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing

In October 2010, the Hunt Family Foundation donated a $10 million gift to the Texas Tech University System. The donation is being used to develop the autonomous, fully-accredited TTUHSC Gayle Greve Hunt SON in El Paso. The Gayle Greve Hunt SON is the second nursing program in the Sun City. It was established to counteract a long-term shortage of nurses who provide care to this medically-underserved area. An influx of approximately 36,000 U.S. Army service members assigned to Fort Bliss (located within the El Paso City limits) over the last three years, has further strained the shortage of nurses. With the increasing shortage of baccalaureate-prepared nurses in Texas and across the country, the Gayle Greve Hunt SON is committed to preparing nursing students to meet the challenges of today's complex health care environment.

 

The aforementioned organizations comprise only a small portion of the medical and health developments that are influencing the Paso del Norte region today. Healthcare proves to be a very sustainable industry that provides high-wage, highly-specialized jobs that directly and indirectly impact the local economy. Facilities Connection acts as a trusted resource to local and regional healthcare organizations to provide integrated, modular interior solutions, both on carpet and off. From waiting rooms, to exam rooms, to executive office, Facilities Connection provides beautiful healing environments in an growing industry. It is no doubt that El Paso is a very exciting place to be now, and for the foreseeable future.

 

Workplace Strategies and the Movable Worker

Traditionally, organizations have equated space performance with space efficiency. Since efficiency usually refers to the number of people per unit of space, it is straightforward to calculate the savings in real estate costs associated with housing more people in smaller and smaller spaces. Since cutting costs never goes out of style — and real estate costs will almost certainly remain high into foreseeable future — this emphasis on space efficiency will continue.

However, this trend may represent an unfortunate emphasis on space performance rather than human performance. Growing numbers of case studies demonstrate that ensuring adequate facilities for the needs of workers almost always pays for itself — usually within the first three years. Perhaps maximizing space performance through minimizing allotments to individual workers negatively impacts the productivity potential of the entire system. Could it be possible that in order to optimize overall output per unit of space, performance must come to mean more than efficiency?

If workers’ health, satisfaction, and performance aren’t sufficient to establish the need for more flexible areas — specified as complete spaces rather than cramped, individual footprints — consider these trends in office systems identified by the Office of Technology Assessment:

1. More work being done on computers and greater distributed data handling

2. Increasing networking among PCs, mainframes, and peripheral systems

3. Enhanced data capture at the point of origin, thus eliminating the need for repeated data entry and contributing to the need for rapid response to dynamic market conditions

4. Improved communication across diverse and distributed sites of data and devices

While these trends may not surprise you, they do paint a picture of continued change and flexibility within office workspaces. Facilities managers will need to do more with less space, increase productivity with decreasing numbers of workers, and support rapidly expanding technology and communications systems — perhaps even functional linkages among remote locations. But remember that maximizing a space means optimizing its output, and assessing that necessarily involves the people who use the space. Minimize what can be minimized, but not at the expense of workers. The modest proposals we have developed here to address and support rapid change constitute a hopeful step toward maintaining America’s corporate competitiveness.

For more information, visit Haworth.com.

You may also contact Hayley Hill at Facilities Connection to get started: hhill@facilitiesconnection.com, 915-834-7125.