Funding complete for $10 million Center of Economic Excellence in Health Facilities Design and Testing

Published: June 3, 2010

CLEMSON — Clemson University President James F. Barker announced Thursday that a $5 million investment by Health Sciences South Carolina completes the funding for the Center of Economic Excellence in Health Facilities Design and Testing. The $5 million matches $5 million in South Carolina Education Lottery Funds allocated to the center through the South Carolina Centers of Economic Excellence (CoEE) program.

The $10 million Health Facilities Design and Testing center will conduct research, develop prototypes and expand and disseminate knowledge on how health-facility design impacts health and health care delivery to improve the architectural settings for patients and staff. Through interdisciplinary research, the center focuses on the relationship between physical health care environments in four areas: health outcomes and patient safety; patient, family and staff satisfaction; operational efficiency and effectiveness; and ability to accommodate change.

The center will support two endowed chairs, one at Clemson in health care architecture and one in human factors and clinical practice at the Medical University of South Carolina. The center builds on research conducted by Clemson University's graduate program concentration in architecture plus health and its longtime research partners Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System and NXT, a nonprofit health care-design program that emerged from Spartanburg Regional's interest in innovation.

Clemson's graduate program concentration in health care architecture is nationally recognized for the scope and quality of its curriculum and consistent emphasis on design excellence in the discipline of health care architecture. Its focus is on preparing architectural graduates to engage in the integrated planning and design of health care facilities, the healthful design of communities and the healthful design of the built environment in general. The program integrates innovative design with academic scholarship and research in health care environments and has won numerous national awards for its work and the work of its students.

Barker noted that Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System CEO Ingo Angermeier, as chairman of the Health Sciences South Carolina board of directors, spearheaded the plan to fund the Center of Economic Excellence in health care design.

"This is a critical yet little-understood field of study, and as an architect I am especially pleased that Health Sciences South Carolina and the Center of Economic Excellence review board appreciate the significance of the impact of a positive physical environment on patients, visitors and health care staff," Barker said. "This center, with its statewide collaboration and investment by public and private concerns, holds great promise as a source of valuable research outcomes to improve the health and quality of life for many. It will also contribute to economic development for the state as innovation-driven research leads to new technologies that form the basis for new companies and high-paying jobs."

"The board and staff of Spartanburg Regional are proud of being a part of this project with our partners," Angermeier said. "This first-in-the-country living laboratory is not only an investment with a top research university and its top students, but an investment in our collective future. We should all rejoice in the good that is yet to be."

Jay Moskowitz, president and CEO of Health Sciences South Carolina, said the decision to support the center was based on its long-term benefit.

"There are many excellent areas in the health sciences that have high merit and deserve funding. The Health Facilities Design and Testing CoEE, however, tops the list, because it brings together a multidisciplinary team of university and hospital experts that is unequalled anywhere in the nation. Health Sciences South Carolina is proud to be a sponsor of this innovative program that will improve health and healing."

David Allison, director of Clemson's health care architecture program and director of the Health Facilities Design and Testing Center of Economic Excellence, said the center adds an important component to the study of health facilities design.

"It is always important for architects to understand the context in which they work," he said. "That is particularly important in health care architecture, and this collaborative program, which provides a holitistic approach to considerations of design, human factors and clinical needs, will be a unique and we believe extremely valuable approach to improving the quality of settings for patient care and health care facilities design overall."

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