Jul 26, 2019 _ news

Prescription for Natural Light

Mercy Health’s Deerfield Medical Center celebrated its ribbon cutting today. Next week, it will begin seeing patients. Part of a $120 million mixed-use development that is bringing hundreds of apartments, a large hotel and commercial space to the intersection of Parkway Drive and Mason-Montgomery Road, in Deerfield Township, Mercy Health’s new location will house eight full-time primary and specialty care providers.

The location will also provide cardiology, women’s health services, general surgery practices as well as diagnostic services, such as labs, X-ray, MRI, mammography, ultrasound and cardio-pulmonary testing.

However, beyond convenience of these services, what patients and staff will find most striking is the way the building’s modular design was used to ensure privacy and efficiency, while increasing access to daylight and natural views for its inhabitants.

“Connecting to nature through daylight and views outside were design goals for both the patient and staff experience,” says Aaron Anderson, part of GBBN’s design team. In order to make that happen, Aaron explains, “we pulled all the exam rooms away from the building’s exterior.” Since windows tend to get covered over in exam rooms out of concerns for privacy, the team decided to pull them into the interior of the building, maximizing the amount of light and nature available to those in the building’s public spaces. As a result, landscaping is able to contribute to a unique sense of place within the building.

Learn more about the strategies we’ve used to integrate more natural light and landscaping into interior our healthcare projects here and here.

Find Cincinnati Business Courier’s coverage of Mercy Health’s Deerfield Medical Center here.