Form Follows Function: A Redesigned Pediatric Office
- 1Susan Okie (susan.okie@verizon.net) is a family practice physician and freelance medical journalist in Bethesda, Maryland.
Practice Texas Children’s Pediatric Associates.
Who and Where The largest general pediatric group practice in the United States, located in Houston, Texas, with almost 160 pediatricians serving approximately 250,000 children.
Core Innovations A design consultant assisted administrators in gathering information from patients and their families as well as the practice’s doctors and staff. A new prototype office was designed to allay children’s anxiety about medical visits and respond to parental concerns about wait times, access, and hygiene. The office was also designed to help address physicians’ and staff members’ interest in job-sharing options, more efficient work flow, and greater collegiality.
Key Results Although no formal study has been conducted, feedback from patients, families, doctors, and staff has been positive. The practice is currently incorporating elements of the new design in its other locations, and intends to replicate it when building new offices.
Challenges A full-scale, customized office design or redesign is costly. It was judged feasible and potentially worth the investment in this case because the practice was about to build a new facility in a rapidly growing suburban area with many young families.
When Texas Children’s Pediatric Associates (TCPA) decided to build an office at Cinco Ranch, a new, upscale planned community in a suburb west of Houston, the practice’s leaders saw the opportunity to create an innovative plan designed to respond to the changing needs of patients, families, and employees. The country’s largest general pediatric group practice, TCPA has almost 160 pediatricians plus 12 nurse practitioners and 40 registered nurses, working at 44 locations and serving about 20 percent of Houston’s children.
Although part of the motivation for the eye-catching new design was to give TCPA a competitive edge in a rapidly growing, relatively affluent area, administrators …
