Allied Health

Georgia Gwinnett College opened the $30 million Allied Health and Science Building in August of 2014 in Lawrenceville. The three-story, 91,000-sf interdisciplinary facility provides laboratories for biology, chemistry, physics, and anatomy and physiology, as well as housing classrooms, faculty offices, and study areas. The second floor of the building accommodates the nursing program and includes a technology-rich classroom for team-based learning and a simulation training center with a 14-bed clinical practice lab.

The 268,000-sf, six-story Health Sciences Education Building (HSEB) incorporates the College of Medicine and Pharmacy from the Arizona School of Medicine with Northern Arizona University’s physician assistant, physical therapy, and occupational therapy programs into the integrated and interdisciplinary Phoenix Biomedical Campus. A 2-million-sf, 28-acre campus master plan includes a recently constructed 20,000-sf underground vivarium, and several research buildings. To the north is a cancer center, which adds a clinical component.

Arkansas Tech University will begin construction in October of 2014 on a 20,273-sf allied health building on the Ozark campus. Supported by $6 million in revenue bond funding, the two-story facility will provide technology-rich teaching labs and clinical simulation suites as well as faculty and staff offices, three computer labs, and a testing center. Completion is expected in November of 2015 with occupancy in spring of 2016.

Rochester Institute of Technology broke ground on the Clinical Health Sciences Center in April of 2014 in Henrietta, N.Y. Accommodating programs for the College of Health Sciences and Technology, the 45,000-sf facility will include dedicated space for the new Wegmans School of Health and Nutrition as well as housing a primary care clinic operated by Rochester General Health System. Constructed as an addition to the existing Louise M.

Black Hawk College broke ground on the $15 million Health Sciences Center in April of 2014. Located on the Quad-Cities campus in Moline, Ill., the three-story, 46,300-sf facility will provide eight labs, two classrooms, two conference rooms, a 64-seat lecture hall, and faculty offices. The center will accommodate programs in nursing, physical therapy, emergency medical services, surgical technology, veterinary assistance, and health information management. Completion is expected in June of 2015.

Institutions that educate medical professionals are building an increasing number of simulation centers in response to the need for more hands-on, interdisciplinary, real-life training scenarios. Although these facilities can generate revenue, the expense of the equipment and related costs make it difficult to be profitable. But, with the use of creative design strategies, institutions can improve utilization and generate income.

The University of Scranton is building a $47.5 million center for rehabilitation education in Scranton, Pa. Supporting an interprofessional medical education pedagogy, the 116,000-sf facility will provide classrooms, simulation training suites, faculty offices, and 25 laboratories for programs in occupational therapy, physical therapy, and exercise science. The center was designed by Hemmler + Camayd and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson in association with HERA Laboratory Planners.

The following is a condensed transcript of a panel discussion that took place at Tradeline’s Academic Medical and Health Science Centers 2013 Conference. The panelists are Ian McDermott, senior director of MedRIST, University Health Network, and Scott Kelsey, managing principal at CO Architects. The moderator is Derek Westfall, president of Tradeline.

Community colleges are fulfilling an increasingly important roll in higher education, particularly in allied health fields, and as a result are focusing on modern facilities and equipment to provide hands-on training. Elgin Community College (ECC) in Illinois recently opened a new, state-of-the-art Health & Life Sciences building, which is helping the college achieve its goals of remaining competitive and expanding program offerings.

Panola College is planning to build a 64,000-sf facility to house the departments of Science and Health Science in Carthage, Texas. Designed by Corgan Associates, the $35 million facility will provide teaching labs for biology, chemistry, microbiology, physical science, anatomy, physiology, nursing, and occupational therapy. The Science-Health Science Building will also house classrooms, lecture halls, offices, computer labs, an instrumentation room, and study suites. The project contractor is HUNT Construction.

Trident Technical College will open a 90,000-sf science and nursing building in January of 2014 in North Charleston, S.C. The $30 million facility will feature a 291-seat tiered lecture hall that can be divided into smaller instructional spaces, as well as teaching labs, classrooms, a clinical simulation suite, and a nursing resource center. LEED Silver sustainable design certification will be sought for the building. The project team included design architect LS3P Associates and general contractor China Construction America.

University Hospital of Northern B.C. broke ground in December of 2013 on the Northern Health Learning and Development Centre in Prince George. Developed in partnership with the Province of British Columbia, the University of Northern British Columbia, and the University of British Columbia, the $10 million project will provide a clinical simulation center, seminar rooms, a library, and video conferencing suites for advanced medical instruction and training.

Dalhousie University will begin building a $35 million collaborative health education building in Halifax in March of 2014. The five-story, 106,000-sf facility will provide active-learning classrooms, a clinical skills simulation suite, seminar rooms, and a learning commons. The project team includes Barrie & Langille Architects of Halifax, Moriyama & Teshima Architects of Toronto, and MHPM Project Managers. The flexible facility was designed to accommodate multiple uses and encourage interaction and collaboration.