DAS Attends”Pebble-in-Practice” Workshop

Aubrey and Abby

DAS Attends”Pebble-in-Practice” Workshop

Distinctive Art Source recently attended The Center for Health Design’s annual Pebble-in-Practice Workshop on Pediatric, Behavioral Health and Aging Mind design in Baltimore MD.

Day 1 “Building Blocks: New Design Strategies and Solutions for Pediatric Settings” began with Natalie Miovski Hagerty, Director of Facilities Planning at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, giving an inspiring presentation in which she shared her experience rethinking patient rooms through re-evaluation. Fresh ideas were offered regarding not only the creation of spaces where patients, families, and staff feel at home but the furniture included in these spaces to support family activities within the patient room.

Aubrey Thorp and Abby Lenon Attend HCD’s “Pebble-in-Practice’ Workshop

Later in the day Juliet Rogers, President, Blue Cottage of Cannon Design challenged the audience to re-think what we know about healthcare design, to “imagine if healthcare was delivered with the consistency of Starbucks, the innovation of Tesla, the reliability of FedEx, convenience of Amazon, experience of Disney, and the affordability of Walmart”.

After a full day of intense pediatric focus, Distinctive Art Source‘s Aubrey Thorp expressed how she “was inspired by the collaboration set forth by all design disciplines  to help improve physical design strategies and methodologies supporting pediatric healthcare!”

Day 2: “Strategic Facility Design Innovations that Improve Treatment Outcomes, Safety and the Bottom Line,” was a strong refresher on how important it is for design professionals to remain research focused while they continue to keep open on-going discussions active on new topics. Keeping current on existing research and adding to the research database are the best ways we as design professionals can inform future Behavioral Health design.  With multiple Behavioral Health projects in the works and as an EDAC advocate firm, Abby Lenon, LEED AP, EDAC expressed how important DAS’s attendance at the Behavioral Health workshop was both for our firm and our clients!

Shary Adams, Principal at HGA, and Kayvan Madani-Nejad, Sr. Healthcare Architect at the US Department of Veterans Affairs presented detailed support information for the design and sizing of Behavioral Health units. Frank Pitts, President of architecture+, encouraged us to reach out to our industry partners, especially healthcare focused manufacturers and consultants, to help facilitate the important research that will drive solutions for the future.

We loved the convenience of attending regional CHD workshops so close to home and, as always, it was a great 2 days of learning, sharing, seeing old friends and making new ones!