How a new VA hospital could serve as a national model

The rebuilt Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital in New Orleans was built with input from veterans, incorporating design features that could be copied by VA facilities around the country.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the three-year process of designing the facility included talking with and observing veteran patients, noting how they used VA hospitals. Those discoveries were then incorporated into the design, with improvements including limiting anxiety-inducing blind corners, avoiding Army green or sand colors, more prominent bathrooms, easier wheelchair storage and putting the chapel near the front of the facility.

The patient rooms were designed to be easily convertible and more open. All can accommodate two patients or be changed into an intensive-care unit if necessary. Each room has floor-to-ceiling windows with shades that can be opened and shut remotely, and nursing stations are located in the middle of every four rooms to “increase interaction between patients and staff.”

For more on the design, including how the facility is protected from hurricane and flood damage that wrecked the old New Orleans VA, click on the link below: