DIG adds two new Hackensack Meridian Health Architect-of-Record Assignments to Portfolio

DIG’s Healthcare Studio has added two new acute-care hospital project completions to its resume with the opening of an Emergency Department Observation Unit at Hackensack Meridian Health’s Jersey Shore University Medical Center (Jersey Shore) and near-completion of an interior medical building fit out at 80 James St. in Edison, home to the Advanced Lung and Airway Center and Outpatient Infusion Center at JFK University Medical Center.

“Each of these treatment spaces has been intentionally designed for functionality, staff and service efficiency, medical-equipment accommodation and the physical and psychological comfort of patients and visitors,” said Bob Ryan, principal, who spearheads the firm’s healthcare studio.

At Jersey Shore, DIG designed an 18-bed observation unit to help reduce Emergency Department patient volume and increase care-efficiency standards. The unit allows patients with a less-than-24-hour stay to be moved from the ED to the observation unit.

Offering maximum visibility from the nurse’s core, the 7,645-SF Observation Unit is designated for patients expected to be discharged home or transferred for an extended stay once the appropriate beds become available.

“Due to the orientation of the overall space at the intersection of where three different buildings converge, the DIG team subdivided the unit to create duplicity for two staffing stations while retaining singular shared support spaces and equipment,” explained Ryan. “To streamline the process from design to construction start and completion, we employed the use of digital scanning, which proved extremely useful in locating all columns by popping existing tiles.”

In addition to its creative and user-friendly architectural designs and elements, the DIG interiors and graphics teams incorporated calming finishes, a faux-wood finished ceiling and creative wayfinding to achieve a less-clinical atmosphere.

To the north in Middlesex County, another DIG architect-of-record assignment is currently underway at JFK in Edison. A former corporate office building, 80 James St. is the focus of a complete fit out across three floors totaling 36,000-SF. In addition to designing a dedicated space for the screening, diagnosis, treatment and management of respiratory diseases and disorders, DIG’s team helped the medical center realize its vision for centralized oncology services.

Within the new oncology space, DIG created individual infusion bays with sliding partitions that allow for privacy and/or social engagement based on each patient’s personal preferences. Additionally, each bay faces exterior windows offering abundant natural light and exterior views.

The fit out of 80 James St. marks the latest DIG assignment at JFK Medical Center, where the firm has completed more than one hundred projects in its forty-plus years relationship. Other projects of note include a 3-story patient bed and surgical suite tower and a 47,500-SF expansion/renovation of their Adult and Pediatric Emergency Departments. For the hospital’s Pediatric Emergency Department, the firm’s multi-disciplinary renovation effort incorporated a color system of playful graphics that successfully and creatively differentiated treatment spaces while putting young patients at ease.

Rounding out DIG’s past and present hospital assignments is the Trinitas Regional Medical Center’s Connie Dwyer Breast Center in Elizabeth; Azura Vascular Care Ambulatory Center in Union; and several projects at Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School for its Obstetrics and Gynecology Suite, Pediatric Outpatient Surgery Suite and Clinical Academic Suite.

DIG Healthcare Studio projects also include a total of seven Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC). Most recently, in New York City DIG was part of the opening of Urban Health Plan’s Park Tree Community Health Center, an 8,000-SF extension clinic, and the development of a 52,000-SF healthcare facility in the Bronx to address the most critical issues of residents in the Hunts Point and Longwood neighborhoods.