What Patients and Families Teach Us About Designing Better Hospitals
HKS architects, designers and researchers have embedded themselves in communities for decades, gaining insights into what people want and need in their health care environments.
Today, our health teams are building on that expert foundation with expanded methods of patient and family engagement. From town halls events and virtual surveys to advisory committee meetings and full-scale room mock-ups, these thoughtful, multifaceted strategies help us create environments that better support people at every step of their care journey.
Three HKS hospital projects—Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU’s Children’s Tower in Richmond, Va., the Children’s Health and UT Southwestern Medical Center new Dallas pediatric campus, and the John M. O’Quinn Hospital at Harris Health’s Lyndon B. Johnson campus in Houston — exemplify why patient and family engagement is essential to designing hospitals that truly reflect and support the people they serve.
Building Trust with Emotional Safety and Resonance
Patients and families want to feel seen, protected, and grounded in hospitals—places where the necessary urgency of care and the understandable concerns of parents and children are balanced with compassion and attentiveness. Prioritizing design that fosters emotional connection and safety can be a powerful way for health systems to build trust.
At Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU’s (CHoR) Children’s Tower, families wanted reassurance that staff and providers were nearby. This desire was most clearly defined by a parent who represented the hospital’s Patient and Family Advisory Committee during development meetings about the inpatient wings.
“She added that additional layer of what it’s like to be a patient or family member in that space. She wanted to know that somebody was there… just to know that someone was keeping watch over her child,” said HKS’ Kate Renner, the architect and medical planner who led the project team.
Taking feedback from both families and staff, HKS designed team workstations and conference rooms on patient floors with glass walls to support visual transparency, some with art panels that balance visibility and privacy. The team also created alcoves at patient room entrances with integral blinds that families can easily adjust based on their privacy needs.
At the Children’s Health and UT Southwestern Medical Center new Dallas pediatric campus, the new 4.9‑million‑square‑foot facility will feature 552 beds, making it one of the largest and most transformative pediatric hospitals in the nation. To ensure this vision meets the needs of those it serves, the project team “cast as wide a net as possible” to gather input from patients, families, and staff, said HKS’s Caitlin Potter, a senior medical planner who is co‑leading design of the inpatient units. Potter also played a leadership role in community engagement efforts for the project. One message came through clearly: families wanted design elements that create a greater sense of comfort and control.
Through surveys, town hall events and Patient Family Advisory Network (PFAN) meetings, families noted opportunities to improve the traditional ensuite bathroom design to improve limited storage and assisting children with bathing. In response, the design team reconfigured bathrooms to offer two storage niches and relocated the shower zones for better access and safety. To further address family insights about limited control, rooms were designed with simple, intuitive options that give families greater control of lighting levels, window shades, TVs and personal device connectivity to increase autonomy.
For Harris Health’s John M. O’Quinn Hospital, located in an underserved area of Houston, the call for emotional safety was especially tied to dignity and trust. The team engaged more than 3,500 people via more than 91,000 touch points, all of which revealed a history of inequitable access to care, long waiting times and limited space—conditions the health system and project team were determined to change.
“It opened my eyes… these individuals have not always had the right things done on their behalf,” said HKS’ Whitney Fuessel, Principal in Charge of the project.
“It opened my eyes… these individuals have not always had the right things done on their behalf.”
Fuessel said the project team and stakeholders co-developed a list of essential elements for the new hospital, which will primarily serve historically marginalized individuals, lower income patients and inmate population. Areas throughout the hospital will enable specialized attention that hasn’t been possible in the past, such as a Women’s Center that is a mother and baby unit with an integrated NICU and dedicated maternal emergency department. The project team also worked with the municipal transit system on a plan to reroute buses so patients can be dropped directly at the front door, reducing barriers to care and signaling respect and building trust from the moment someone arrives.
Cultivating Comfort with Everyday Elements
Patients and families can easily miss the comforts of everyday life during hospital stays. Design features that provide a sense of normalcy or routine and offer vibrant reflections of their community are common requests during HKS engagement activities. Everyday comforts help patients and families feel a sense of belonging in clinical environments that can otherwise feel unfamiliar or overwhelming.
At CHoR’s Children’s Tower, which opened in 2023, children participated in selecting colors, themes and playful elements that would define their care environment.
“We had one palette that was all blues, one that was multi-colored, and one that was more of a green palette. They 100% picked the bright, colorful one,” said Renner, who worked with interior designers and architects to evolve the color schemes as design progressed.
Children and family input at CHoR also influenced graphics that feature welcoming animal mascots and wayfinding features that differentiate floors and amenity spaces—touches that help families settle in and navigate the hospital with confidence.
Engagement efforts for the Children’s Health and UT Southwestern Medical Center New Dallas Pediatric Campus yielded an important takeaway for the design team: don’t change what’s really working for people in existing facilities. For that hospital’s population, one of those requests was to retain access to their favorite daily fuel.
During the design discussions, one theme that consistently emerged was just how meaningful the coffee shop is to clinical staff, families, and visitors. With people coming through the campus around the clock, having reliable 24/7 access to coffee is something they truly value. “Many people emphasized ‘Don’t take away my coffee!’” Potter recounted. As a result, ensuring convenient access to coffee remains an important part of the plan.
In surveys and meetings about the campus design, families also emphasized the importance of having places to step away, breathe, and reset. Outdoor terraces became essential components championed by the design team, so moments of respite that help people regulate emotions and reconnect with a sense of normalcy are easier to come by.
At John M. O’Quinn Hospital in Houston, a sense of belonging and comfort will be deeply tied to cultural identity, community pride, and the local environment. The project team and leadership committed to featuring art created entirely by Harris County artists, ensuring that the hospital’s walls tell the community’s story, celebrate its people, history and resilience.
“They wanted to see themselves reflected in the space,” said Fuessel. “The art is not just for the waiting rooms or lobby; it’s being placed everywhere so everyone gets to experience it.”
“The art is not just for the waiting rooms or lobby; it’s being placed everywhere so everyone gets to experience it.”
Fuessel said nature will also play central role in cultivating a comfortable atmosphere in the re-imagined Lyndon B. Johnson campus. An urban farm and orchard will be accessible and visible from the John M. O’Quinn Hospital, and a bioremediation garden will educate visitors about how plants can help restore the land. These elements are intended to uplift people and serve as a reminder that the hospital is unmistakably rooted in the community it serves.
An Essential Part of the Process
These projects demonstrate that when designers listen closely, patients and families reveal what truly matters to them in moments of vulnerability. The call for environments that provide emotional safety and daily reminders of home emerges clearly from our shared dialogue. HKS health teams deeply believe that engagement is not one step in the design process — it is the foundation of good design that transforms hospitals from clinical spaces into places of trust, dignity and human connection.
