A frontrunner in nursing and healthcare administration for 20 years, Karin Henderson serves because the system chief for the five-hospital Cone Well being group, liable for greater than $300 million in capital development tasks. On Feb. 23, 2020, Cone Well being closed its maternity hospital, shifting providers into a brand new mattress tower. With the COVID-19 pandemic in early phases on the time, Henderson was charged with evaluating the vacated hospital to find out if it was doable to rework its medical/surgical stage right into a essential care surroundings to deal with COVID-19 sufferers.
She led a crew of engineers, an infection prevention and security practitioners, Lean consultants, and clinicians to find out easy methods to alter the construction, air dealing with items and air flow programs, and tools to satisfy potential affected person wants. Key features of constructing performance have been confirmed, corresponding to {the electrical} load essential to assist dozens of grownup ventilators and HEPA filters, oxygen circulation functionality, and HVAC to realize unfavorable strain.
The hassle resulted within the conversion of the 200,000-square-foot campus into North Carolina’s solely subject hospital at the moment. Henderson assembled an 80-person crew to information the challenge, leveraging evidence-based design, an infection prevention requirements, and learnings from the Ebola outbreak to information options applied. And design was key to assuring workers have been secure throughout care supply.
For instance, Henderson led her crew in adopting a Lean philosophy for the circulation of sufferers, tools, and workers by way of the contaminated surroundings to optimize the location of kit and provides, with momentary partitions and taped areas designating contaminated and secure zones. Proof-based design was likewise leveraged to realize decreased contact factors within the contaminated surroundings and elevated time for employees on the bedside. Moreover, an end-of-life suite was added as an area the place households might safely go to family members to say goodbye.
The sector hospital, in-built simply 28 days, was used to deal with greater than 2,500 sufferers between April 2020 and March. Henderson and her crew subsequent took their learnings to use them to opening three pandemic items for COVID-19 therapy on different Cone Well being campuses in addition to to assemble a communicable illness unit on the primary campus.
These areas at the moment are the vacation spot care areas throughout this wave of the pandemic whereas additionally serving as a “lab surroundings,” the place analysis could be carried out on how finest to ship care to contagious sufferers.
What do you like most about your job?
Working for a well being system that fosters innovation and helps the danger of paradigm change. Usually development is led solely by development administration and challenge managers; our group supported a brand new paradigm the place a nurse with deep medical and development expertise was appointed to steer design and development. I really like drawing on my medical expertise and partnering with frontline workers who inform design primarily based on proof.
What trade problem do you hope to unravel?
Reinventing the method to conventional challenge supply practices by increasing the usage of built-in Lean development together with evidence-based design to supply optimum worth within the development of the affected person care surroundings.
Who conjures up you?
I’m at all times humbled by the knowledge and innovation on the bedside. The distinctive insights and data of frontline workers are properly documented in literature. After we empower that workers with proof and knowledge and authentically share with them the challenges of healthcare, we obtain greater than we will think about doable.
What’s the following main pattern you anticipate for healthcare design?
Pandemic readiness throughout the context of continuous shortages of assets and capital. There’s additionally a rising nationwide consciousness of the worth of a Lean development method the place all contributors equally share within the dangers and rewards of a challenge.
What did you be taught over the previous yr?
That it’s sort of enjoyable doing the not possible.