The design of the new University of Minnesota Clinics and Surgery Center in Minneapolis was inspired by the architectural layout of Apple stores, according to an article from STAT.
The 342,000-square-foot care facility opened in February and is equipped to serve more than 2,000 patients per day. The five-floor, $165 million dollar building was designed with patient satisfaction and staff efficiency in mind. Similarities to an Apple store are exhibited by the stark absence of lines and intake desks manned by authority figures. Instead visitors meet concierges at the door and walk into a wide-open floor plan enclosed by walls of glass. Patients can access appointment information online before coming to the facility, as one would before heading to the airport.
Nobody at the new center gets an office. Staff member desks are aligned across a broad stretch of windows upstairs. The building also features conference rooms and a three-story open-air staff lounge.
"We took a really big risk here," Mary Johnson, chief operating officer of University of Minnesota Physicians, told STAT. "We're asking staff to make quite a huge culture shift."
The design is meant to compel medical staff to interact more frequently. David J. Allison, director of Clemson (S.C.) University's Graduate Studies in Architecture and Health program, told STAT the collaborative approach potentially fostered by the design could prove effective in a healthcare setting.
Some experts are skeptical about the trend toward expensive care facilities flush with amenities and the idea that such facilities promote healing.
George J. Mann, a Texas A&M University architecture professor specializing in healthcare design, told STAT, "Sometimes it's implied that the amenities will help them get better, but I don't think so...it can't hurt to have a nice facility, but there are some people who can't afford to get in the door."
Ms. Johnson told STAT she thinks the care culture spurred by the design will ultimately lower costs by increasing efficiency and patient satisfaction, which could diminish the need for multiple returns to the center. The university will reportedly collect and analyze data from patients and staff and publish results in academic journals to determine the benefits of the Apple's influence on the facility's design.
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