Regular readers of my column might remember last month’s edition, titled “The Whole of Healthcare.” As a refresher, I explained our choice to feature a “nontraditional” facility-in this case, the City of Hope Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for Cancer Immunotherapeutics and Tumor Immunology in Duarte, California-as our Showcase feature for the May 2010 issue. Despite the fact that the center doesn’t feature a single patient bed or even a treatment area, I argued that its role in the healthcare world should still be celebrated, even if it isn’t as glamorous as some of our regularly featured clinics and hospitals.

That thought process extends to this issue of HEALTHCARE DESIGN, as well, which features projects that fall firmly into that same “other” category to varying degrees. In the pages to follow, you will see a critical access hospital (“Rethinking the Critical Access Hospital,” page 30), a visually spectacular dining area (“Image and Imagination,” page 40), and a look at the recent trend in retail clinics (“When Healthcare Gets Too ‘Clinical’,” page 46). Our Showcase this month falls right in line, too, telling the story of Cisco’s LifeConnections Health Center in San Jose, California, a high-tech facility dedicated exclusively to Cisco employees and their families (“Introducing the Electronic Future,” page 52). And not a traditional acute care hospital in sight.

As the healthcare model in the United States continues to adapt and evolve under Healthcare Reform, and new super-projects slow to launch in the face of uncertainty, I suspect we’ll see more of these nontraditional facilities in our pages-and continue to learn valuable lessons from them that can be applied to all manner of projects, big, small, and “other.” In any case, rest assured that HEALTHCARE DESIGN will continue to follow the trends, wherever they may lead. HD

Healthcare Design 2010 June;10(6):8