Kaiser Permanente’s (No. 1 on the Fair360, formerly DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list) Health Hub Experience has been named a Health category finalist in Fast Company’s prestigious 2016 Innovation by Design Awards.
“The health hub experience is part of Kaiser Permanente’s strategic framework for a life-integration concept, which acknowledges that health care must be integrated into the lives of patients, that it must be intuitive, pervasive and aspirational,” said Jodie Lesh, senior vice president, strategic planning & new ventures, for Kaiser Permanente Southern California. “The life-integration approach expands access to health care beyond our traditional system and challenges us to utilize a variety of innovative options to deliver the highest quality care to each member.”
“Health hub is Kaiser Permanente’s physical manifestation of an intentionally designed ambulatory experience,” notes Lesh. “Health hubs represent a total overhaul of the patient experience, from pre-arrival to the check-in process to the engagement of the waiting area to the way providers and care teams interact with members and one another.”
One of Kaiser Permanente’s first health hubs, located in Manhattan Beach, was featured in Fast Company’s April 2016 “life-changing ideas” issue. The hub serves as a “real-world laboratory” to fine-tune the physical features and workflow. Nine other health hubs will be built in Southern California, and aspects of the health hubs will be introduced in the design of Kaiser Permanente medical centers across the country.
The “Health Hub Experience” was designed by HDR for Kaiser Permanente’s Reimagining Ambulatory Health project.
“Health hub is more than a specific building design. Health hub is an experience model that scales to different facility sizes and configurations,” said David Grandy, FACHE, CMPE, managing director of HDR’s Strategic Innovation Group. “This collaboration with Kaiser Permanente to improve the health and health experience of their patients through human-centered design resulted in truly advancing the thinking and models of care for the future.”
The Innovation by Design Awards program, now in its fifth year, honors the most innovative and disruptive design solutions to today’s business problems. This year’s judging panel, which included some of the world’s best design minds, selected the finalists from more than 1,700 international submissions across 11 categories — the most ever.
Fast Company is one of the world’s leading business media brands, with an editorial focus on creativity and innovation in technology, ethical economics, leadership, and design. Headquartered in New York City, Fast Company is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with its sister publication Inc. and can be found online at fastcompany.com.
