By making simple architectural changes that help staff become more productive, Atrium Living Centers is keeping up with the ever-changing landscape of long-term care.

​

It is expected that future long-term nursing care will realize shorter resident stays, reimbursement that does not keep pace with the rising costs of care staff or reporting, and care outcomes that exceed today’s standards. As health and well-being architects, one of the few weapons that we have at our disposal to combat these realities, while maintaining a profit, is design efficiency. We must be able to do more with less, and that’s why Atrium Centers partnered with MKM to develop a licensed nursing care environment grounded in Lean planning principles, which cuts waste and aims for a higher level of safety, productivity, and delivery.

Atrium’s focus is based on evidence of consistent resident-to-staff ratios (while taking into consideration future resident needs), open staffing sightlines, and on the maximum number of steps required by staff to move from one end of the neighborhood to the other. There are numerous, repetitive daily tasks completed by nurses and assistants every day, including trips to the clean supply room, searching for the lifts, charting, and transporting incapacitated residents to dining, activities, and to the shower room. The design for the new Mallard Cove facility positions these regularly used supply spaces in the best possible way, helping minimize the walking distance to resident’s rooms – ideas that will serve as a standard prototype for future buildings currently being designed. The efficiency of the design enables nursing staff to spend more time providing hand-on care and less time logging inefficient and repetitive tasks.

​