Cannon Design’s Yazdani Studio was commissioned to plan and design the Jacobs Medical Center, a 10-story multi-specialty hospital, in a major expansion for the UC San Diego Health System. Shield first partnered with Cannon and Modular Services Company to turn an institutional medical product, the patient headwall, into an architectural element that is as functional as it is…
At Shield, we firmly believe that healing environments deserve sustainable and safe material. We believe that whatever isn’t good enough for countertops certainly isn’t good enough for the rest of the casework system. Shield is here, and laminate is history. For the past 50 years, healthcare facilities have perceived plastic laminate as the cheapest solution,…
If you are attending the Healthcare Design Conference in Orlando, you should wonder: “What do I want to learn?” At Shield, we decided that we want to concentrate our learning efforts on 3 topics: patient experience, evidence-based design and patient safety. It’s easy to be overwhelmed when looking at all the sessions available! You only have so…
We have heard a lot lately about accountability in healthcare industries. After years of focus on short-term profit, the conversation is changing and hospitals are starting to adopt different behaviors. A more sustainable model based more on patient care than profitability will, in the long term, gain the respect and loyalty of patients and staff.…
An interesting article was recently published in Healthcare Finance News that talks about how designing hospitals with sustainable materials and a proper workflow in mind leads to better ROI, or return on investment. This is highly applicable to hospitals furniture, especially casework. By thinking about the long term, as well as the short term, you can increase…
Lean manufacturing is the process of maximizing customer value, while eliminating waste, both material waste and wasted motion (labor). The idea was derived from the Toyota Production System (TPS) and is now universally adopted. At Shield, we embrace lean thinking in manufacturing. We are constantly looking for ways to further incorporate lean manufacturing techniques into…
From high traffic to the battle against healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), healthcare facilities are prone to many cleaning challenges and can have difficulties controlling the proliferation of bacteria. Hospital life is hectic and it is basically impossible to stop patient room furniture or casework from having run-ins with damage. However, solid surface brings a few things to…
Among the leading causes of preventable deaths are Healthcare-associated Infections (HAIs), which are infections patients contract while receiving medical or surgical treatment. Whether from cross-contamination or unsanitary spaces, patients in healthcare facilities risk further sickness as a result of germs and bacteria spread in hospitals. While there are a number of solutions in place to…