Ulrich extols evidence-based design
in Washington, D.C. panel discussion

Texas A&M architecture professor Roger Ulrich recently addressed the benefits of evidence-based design for the health care industry in a distinguished panel discussion, “Healthy Hospitals,” held as part of the National Building Museum’s “For the Greener Good” lecture series.

The entire discussion examining why a green hospital is a healthier one can be viewed online at vimeo.com.

The distinguished panel included Bob Eisenman, executive director, Global Health and Safety Initiative; Robin Guenther, architect and co-author of Sustainable Healthcare Architecture; Ro ger S. Ulrich, Ph.D., holder of the Julie and Craig Beale Professorship in Health Facilities Design at Texas A&M University; and moderator Joanne Silberner, health policy correspondent, National Public Radio

“The goal of evidence-based design,” Ulrich  told the panel, “is to create hospitals and healthcare buildings that are highly effective, perform better, are safer, more healing, better places to work and better places for families to visit. They help to reduce long-term costs, so they improve outcomes in a broad sense.”

Ulrich said it’s common for hospitals to focus on cutting costs during facility construction.

“It’s a short term, economically irrational perspective that unfortunately is all too common not only in this country but in other countries,” he said.

The National Building Museum, created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1980, is a private, nonprofit organization committed to educating the public about the built environment and its impact on people’s lives.

View the “Healthy Hospitals” panel discussion.