Insights and Inspirations: Reflecting on My First ASHE PDC Summit

Blog Contribution by NIHD Member Andrea Skowronek, RD, MPH, CAPM.

Last month, I had the incredible opportunity to attend my first ASHE PDC Summit in sunny San Diego. The Summit cooked up a melting pot of ideas, advice, and insights that were simply too much to absorb in a few days. The Nursing Institute for Healthcare Design (NIHD) brought their A-game, hosting 15 sessions covering case studies, codes, and even PDC “hacks.”

Summit sessions were a buffet of practical, actionable advice, exactly what you’d expect from a gathering of top-tier engineers, architects, designers, construction professionals, hospital administrators, and clinicians.

Here’s a snapshot of the insights I gathered:

AI is exciting, albeit creepy, useful, tricky, and undeniably cool.

AI is fascinating... and a bit daunting. It was the subject of two of the three keynote discussions, painting a picture of its huge potential and the delicate balance needed to integrate it wisely into healthcare. We're talking about using AI to push healthcare forward without losing the irreplaceable human touch. Getting this balance right is crucial for tapping AI's benefits smartly and ethically.

 

“Mega projects” aren’t just regular projects that have been super-sized.

The session "Guidelines to Managing Healthcare’s Mega Projects" delivered an honest look at the outcomes of large-scale healthcare construction projects: they either meet their budget and timeline goals or fail dramatically. This bimodal distribution of results highlights the inherent fragility of mega projects. Successfully navigating these projects hinges on robust, proactive planning—known as 'front-end loading'—and rigorous risk management from the get-go.

Photo provided by ASHE (Photographer: Noel Photos).

 

Codes and regs are ever-changing, so use your resources!

The "Navigating the Labyrinth of Health Care Codes" session delivered some real talk on how to keep projects compliant and safe. Knowing the major players in the regulatory field and key regulations (cheat sheet below) can make all the difference, as well as critical distinctions like “new” vs. “existing.” By employing a focused approach and staying on top of the game, everyone wins.

Photo provided by ASHE (Photographer: Noel Photos).

Key Regulations:

(as presented by Leah Hummel, Senior Associate Director, ASHE Regulatory Affairs)

▪ NFPA 101 

▪ NFPA 99 

▪ Adopted Model Codes and referenced standards 

▪ ICC  (IBC, IEBC, IMC, IFC) 

▪ NFPA (10, 13, 70, 72) 

▪ FGI Guidelines or State Health Code/Rules 

▪ ADA Standards for Accessible Design/A117.1 

▪ Conditions of Participation (CoP) 

▪ TJC Environment of Care (EoC)

 

A few bold voices can result in major sustainability gains.

Another standout session featured Providence, a care network spanning six western states. They discovered that a shocking amount of their piped nitrous oxide was escaping into the atmosphere. A swift pivot to on-demand portable tanks cut down this waste, echoing their broader commitment to environmental stewardship under their WE ACT framework and goal of becoming carbon negative by 2030. Providence's efforts set a sustainability standard that other systems can (and should) follow.

Mikhail Davis from Interface Flooring also left an impression with his talk on the expo floor’s Discovery Stage. His discussion was the most genuine, straightforward, and thorough treatment of climate science that I've encountered. Davis highlighted a crucial point: sustainability in healthcare must extend beyond daily operations to the materials we choose for construction.

 

When we talk about pandemics, fires, and floods, we’re talking about “resilience.”

Recent natural disasters have thrown the spotlight back on the need for resilient facilities. The OSHPD Emergency Design Guide shared at the "Resiliency Design for Health Care Facilities" session offers a blueprint for facilities to stay functional and safe when disaster strikes, emphasizing the need for flexibility and solid planning. The guide covers strategies like ventilation adjustments in emergency patient rooms, the integration of HEPA filtration, and the use of acuity-adjustable patient units.

 

PDC folks are Pretty Darn Creative… if you pardon the pun.

In addition to all the innovative solutions presented in the sessions and the creative demos showcased on the Expo Floor, I’ve also been struck by the number of artistic souls I’ve met on my journey deeper into healthcare design. Check out the paintings of Nathan Saxton CHFM, a Summit attendee and Director of Facilities Operations who also gathered inspiration for his artistic work in San Diego.

 

The discovery of another creative masterpiece resulted from my Summit interactions with IAPMO. Check out “My Mom Is A Plumbing Superhero” by Judaline Cassidy.

In conclusion, we learn best when we learn together.

Sharing what we learn is how we grow. The ASHE PDC Summit was a feast for the mind, packed with insights that I’m still unpacking. Here's to more sharing, creating, and pushing the boundaries in healthcare design!

 

NIHD collaborates with clinicians, design professionals, academics and industry partners in the healthcare design process to shape the future of healthcare design.