This month we kick off a new feature on HCDmagazine.com, compiling recent coverage on targeted topics to help readers quickly get up to speed on pressing issues or refresh themselves on latest trends. Here, we begin with acute care.

Despite industry trends that push care into communities via nonhospital-based solutions—ambulatory networks, retail clinics, and even telehealth—acute care projects remain in high demand. Drivers for this work include aging infrastructure inspiring replacements, acquisitions requiring consolidations and rebranding, and evolving markets necessitating large-scale to microhospital additions to existing health systems.

Additionally, within the walls of these facilities are critical issues that often require a design eye to fine-tune, including infection control, safety, and operational efficiency.

For the latest on the acute care projects being delivered and trends that are emerging from that work, see these recent articles from Healthcare Design.

  • A New Model For The Urban Medical Center
    Urban health centers are often interruptions in a city’s fabric. There’s a better way to weave these facilities into our communities.
  • Built to Serve: Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center
    At nearly 1 million square feet, Fort Hood’s Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center has the size, scope, and amenities to support its military community now and into the future.
  • Starting Point: Henderson Hospital
    As the anchor tenant of the Union Village health village in Henderson, Nev., the new hospital serves as a landmark that expresses the healthcare focus of the site.
  • Hospital Design For Seniors
    The elderly represents the largest percentage of hospital inpatients and this number will continue to grow. Should the research and principles of design for senior facilities be applied universally to hospitals?
  • Breath of Fresh Air: Ng Teng Fong General Hospital And Jurong Community Hospital
    Touting natural ventilation, operable windows, and an energy use rate 69 percent lower than the average U.S. hospital, Ng Teng Fong General Hospital and Jurong Community Hospital push the boundaries of sustainable design in healthcare.
  • A Critical Need For ICUs
    The demand for critical care beds is increasing as more patients with high-acuity conditions head to the hospital, driving facilities to expand their critical care units while rethinking what’s best for patients, families, and staff.
  • 2017 Design Showcase Award of Merit: Human Touch
    The UC San Diego Health Jacobs Medical Center was lauded by jurors for design elements that put people first in both experience and operations.
  • Fitting In: Acibadem Altunizade Hospital
    Acibadem Healthcare Group makes room for 1 million square feet of acute care and specialty services on a dense 3.7-acre site in Istanbul.
  • Magic Moment: Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal
    A project-defining decision made during the planning of Montreal’s new Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal enabled the team to transform three outdated institutions into a vibrant new healthcare landmark.
  • Learn By Example
    The microhospital business model borrows successful strategies utilized in other commercial property types.
  • Renovation Experience Reimagined
    Converting existing space into a recovery unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center offered the opportunity to solve some of hospital environments’ biggest challenges.

For more acute care projects, including Photo Tours of recently completed facilities and First Looks of projects in progress, visit healthcaredesignmagazine.com/projects/acute-care/.