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Healthcare Interior Design 2.0

Healthcare Interior Design 2.0

By: Porcelanosa
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Healthcare design is undergoing a revolutionary transformation. How can we create healing environments that embrace innovation, celebrate human diversity, and serve everyone in our communities? From reimagining cancer care delivery to integrating infection-resistant materials and sustainable product solutions, how can thoughtful design enhance the experience of patients, families, caregivers and clinical staff? With compassion and curiosity, host Cheryl Janis interviews the world's top wellness leaders and healthcare design professionals who are challenging conventional thinking and creating spaces that heal, nurture, and welcome all. Join us as we explore groundbreaking innovations and human-centered approaches that are reshaping the future of healthcare design. Tune in and be part of the conversation that's transforming how we experience healthcare. #DesignHeals #InclusiveHealthcare Art Hygiene & Healthy Living Physical Illness & Disease
Episodes
  • Episode 79, Jamie Raymond, EDAC, RID, LEED AP, WBE, Healthcare Design Strategist, Partner at Four Point Design

    Episode 79, Jamie Raymond, EDAC, RID, LEED AP, WBE, Healthcare Design Strategist, Partner at Four Point Design
    Sep 15 2026
    "I quickly fell in love with the complexity of the spaces, the ability to support people in their healing journey and support the caregivers who dedicate their lives to caring for others." –Jamie Raymond on The Healthcare Interior Design 2.0 podcast Jamie Raymond didn't set out to become a healthcare interior designer. An unexpected change during a summer internship led her to BSA LifeStructures — and on her very first day, to a cancer center. Nearly three decades later, healthcare design has become both her passion and her calling. On today's episode of Healthcare Interior Design 2.0, Cheryl speaks with Jamie Raymond, Healthcare Design Strategist and partner at Four Point Design, about why interior designers need a meaningful seat at the table early in the design process, what she has learned from a nearly 20-year relationship with Eskenazi Health, and why listening closely to caregivers can completely change the direction of a healthcare environment. Jamie shares some wonderful examples: mountain imagery that caregivers immediately associated with an EKG graph; butterflies that carried an unexpected meaning in a pediatric hospital; and staff lounges with beautiful daylight that caregivers didn't use because they were simply too far from their patients. The conversation also looks ahead at the forces reshaping healthcare interiors today — from post-COVID material durability and workforce pressures to modular construction, rapidly changing technology, and the continuing need to create spaces of calm, respite, dignity, and human connection. KEY TAKEAWAYS In this episode, Cheryl and Jamie discuss: How an unexpected summer internship led Jamie into healthcare design — and ultimately changed the direction of her career Why healthcare became far more than a specialty for Jamie and eventually became her calling The thinking behind Four Point Design's intentionally small, interiors-only practice Why interior designers need a meaningful seat at the table early in the planning and design process The difference between deeply understanding a project and becoming what Jamie calls a "finish picker" How an experienced interiors team can become an extension of an architecture firm and healthcare organization Jamie's nearly 20-year relationship with Eskenazi Health and what long-term continuity can teach designers What it means to walk through a hospital years later and see how design decisions have actually aged The commitment Eskenazi Health has made to maintaining the integrity of its original design, materials, artwork, and environment Why designers cannot assume they understand what caregivers need How caregiver visioning sessions uncover associations and meanings a design team could never predict The mountain imagery that caregivers immediately associated with EKG graphs The unexpected meaning of butterflies in one pediatric healthcare environment How furniture fairs allow caregivers to test, score, move, and interact with furniture before decisions are made What existing-facility tours reveal about how people really use healthcare spaces Why a beautiful staff lounge isn't useful if caregivers don't have enough time to reach it New approaches to caregiver respite spaces, including smaller rooms close to patient care areas How COVID permanently changed expectations around cleaning, disinfection, upholstery, furniture, flooring, and other healthcare materials How construction workforce challenges are influencing the way interior environments are detailed and built The growing role of modular, prefabricated, and off-site manufactured interior components Jamie's hope that healthcare technology eventually becomes almost invisible within the built environment Why healthcare spaces must continue to provide calm, safety, respite, and connection even as the industry continues to change RESOURCES MENTIONED Four Point Design Visit Four Point Design Eskenazi Health / Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital Explore the Eskenazi Health Downtown CampusLearn more about Sidney & Lois Eskenazi and their $40 million gift "Engaging Caregivers in the Design Process" By Jamie Raymond, RID, EDAC, LEED AP and Victoria Numbers, RID, MSIA, CHID Healthcare Construction + Operations News Read the article BSA LifeStructures Visit BSA LifeStructures HKS Explore HKS Healthcare MEMORABLE GUEST QUOTES "I quickly fell in love with the complexity of the spaces, the ability to support people in their healing journey and support the caregivers who dedicate their lives to caring for others." "I call that becoming a finish picker, where you're really working at a very surface layer to get a job done and not really digging in and understanding the why and the details of a project." "As your interior design partner, we're singularly focused on the patient, family, and staff experience." "You feel like a colleague and not a consultant." "We cannot possibly understand the perspective of being a caregiver. We have to ask those ...
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    44 mins
  • Episode 78, Kristin Ellingsen, CHID, NCIDQ, EDAC,Facilities Space Planner at City of Hope

    Episode 78, Kristin Ellingsen, CHID, NCIDQ, EDAC,Facilities Space Planner at City of Hope
    Aug 18 2026
    "It's mesmerizing. You can just sit there and watch them move, and you can see them from your chair if you're going through chemo from certain windows. So it's the ultimate positive distraction." — Kristin Ellingsen on HID2.0 In today's episode of Healthcare Interior Design 2.0, Cheryl Janis welcomes Kristin Ellingsen, CHID, NCIDQ, EDAC, and Facility Space Planner at City of Hope in Duarte, California, for a warm and deeply human conversation about Hope Plaza — an extraordinary cancer and diabetes care environment and one of the most recognized recent healthcare design projects in the country. Hope Plaza is an award-winning outpatient care building, but this conversation moves beyond the awards to explore what happens after opening day, when patients, families, caregivers, and team members begin moving through a space, returning to it, noticing it, depending on it, and sometimes even finding a favorite chair. Kristin helps us see Hope Plaza not only as a building, but as a healing landscape of art, light, ritual, nature, hospitality, and care. There are mountain views, softened curves, natural materials, a soothing water wall, gardens, sculpture, a campus art program, and a kinetic parking structure inspired by City of Hope's wishing-tag tradition. And yet, as Cheryl reflects, none of it feels like spectacle. It feels gentle. Supportive. Human. Throughout the conversation, Kristin shares how City of Hope's mission shapes the daily work of design. Unlike a typical acute care hospital, City of Hope serves patients who may return again and again over the course of treatment. That reality changes everything: seating must offer choice, views must soothe, wayfinding must reduce stress, and even the smallest details can become part of someone's care experience. One of the most moving stories Kristin shares is about a man waiting for his wife who told her, "This is my favorite chair." He had even looked underneath the chair to find its name: Charlotte. For Kristin, that moment confirmed something essential about healthcare design — that comfort, dignity, and choice are not luxuries. They matter. Kristin also shares her own unexpected path into healthcare design, beginning with a life that took her around the world, including Egypt, Egyptian Arabian horses, and eventually the experience of caring for her grandmother with dementia. That personal chapter opened her heart to senior living, memory care, universal design, and the deeply human side of healthcare interiors. This is a conversation about City of Hope, Hope Plaza, and the many ways design can create comfort, dignity, wonder, and moments of joy. In this episode, Cheryl and Kristin discuss: Why Hope Plaza has received such extraordinary recognition across healthcare design, interiors, architecture, development, and construction How light, mountain views, curved forms, stone, wood, and biophilic design shape the emotional experience of the building City of Hope's history, beginning in 1913 with a simple but powerful idea that compassion could change lives The way City of Hope's mission continues to guide daily decisions across the campus Why cancer and diabetes care environments require a different kind of attention to comfort, familiarity, and return visits Hope Plaza as a gateway to the City of Hope campus The importance of patient ambassadors and human help at moments of stress or uncertainty The art program at City of Hope and how sculpture, installations, rotating artwork, and gardens create moments of pause The wishing-tag tradition and how it inspired the kinetic façade of the award-winning parking structure Why Kristin calls the parking structure one of her favorite places on campus The role of gardens, the rose garden, sculpture areas, and outdoor spaces in creating respite The story of Charlotte, the favorite chair Why seating choice matters when patients and families may spend long hours waiting How healthcare designers learn from what happens after opening day Kristin's path into healthcare design through Egypt, Egyptian Arabian horses, her grandmother, senior living, and memory care The connection between memory care, universal design, safety, and dignity What hope means to Kristin now Key Takeaways 1. Hope Plaza is more than an award-winning building. Hope Plaza has received major recognition, but Kristin invites us to understand it as a living place — one shaped by how patients, families, caregivers, and team members actually use it. The awards matter, but the deeper story is the human experience after opening day. 2. Light and views can change how people feel. Kristin describes the way light enters Hope Plaza from multiple directions and how the mountain views, natural materials, and curved forms create a visceral sense of comfort. The building does not simply look beautiful; it helps people feel more grounded. 3. Cancer care changes the design question. At City of Hope, patients may come for long appointments, ...
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    46 mins
  • Episode 77, Mike McKay, AIA, ACHE, EDAC, LEED AP, Healthcare Market Sector Leader for Erdman

    Episode 77, Mike McKay, AIA, ACHE, EDAC, LEED AP, Healthcare Market Sector Leader for Erdman
    Jun 16 2026
    "Can we design a small enough hospital where the intimacy of care matches the human scale, more residential than institutional?" — Mike McKay on the Healthcare Interior Design 2.0 podcast On today's episode of Healthcare Interior Design 2.0, Cheryl welcomes Mike McKay, AIA, ACHE, EDAC, LEED AP, Healthcare Market Sector Leader at Erdman. Mike's relationship with architecture began early — really early. In kindergarten, he was already building little cities in his basement to the scale of his Matchbox cars. Years later, during his last year at Ball State, a difficult four-day hospital stay gave him a deeply personal understanding of how healthcare environments can affect patients — and why, as Mike says, "we can do better." Cheryl and Mike explore Erdman's fascinating roots through founder Marshall Erdman, whose relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright helped shape the firm's early thinking around design, construction, prefabrication, and integrated project delivery. They also discuss Erdman's 1950s Doctors Park concept, a forward-thinking model that brought multiple physician practices together in a more accessible, community-based setting. The conversation also touches on Beverly Willis, FAIA, women in Frank Lloyd Wright's studio, Erdman's "under one roof" legacy, and the role of daylight, nature, evidence-based design, collaboration, and human scale in healthcare environments. At the heart of the episode is a question that feels both simple and profound: can we design healthcare environments where the intimacy of care actually matches the human scale? In this episode, Cheryl and Mike discuss: Mike's early path into architecture and healthcare design How a difficult personal patient experience shaped Mike's healthcare design perspective Marshall Erdman's relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright Erdman's early work on the First Unitarian Society Meeting House in Madison Prefabrication, industrialized construction, and Erdman's "under one roof" approach Doctors Park and the early evolution of community-based healthcare design Beverly Willis, women in Frank Lloyd Wright's studio, and women's leadership in healthcare design How Erdman's integrated project delivery mindset continues to influence the firm today Why healthcare projects need a clear "why" before design begins Data-informed design, advisory services, and strategic planning in healthcare The importance of daylight, nature, gardens, comfort, and domestic-scale spaces Why healthcare design must consider inward-facing and outward-facing spaces differently Mike's reflections on favorite Erdman projects, including senior living, emergency care, pediatric oncology, and behavioral health The importance of human scale in hospitals and healthcare environments Why the client, patient, staff, and community experience must remain at the center of every project KEY TAKEAWAYS Mike McKay's path into healthcare design was shaped by both professional opportunity and personal experience. An early hospital stay as a young architecture student left him with a vivid memory of how healthcare environments can affect patients — and a belief that design can do better. Erdman's roots are deeply connected to founder Marshall Erdman's relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright, beginning with Erdman's work as the contractor for Wright's First Unitarian Society Meeting House in Madison, Wisconsin. Marshall Erdman was ahead of his time in thinking about integrated project delivery, prefabrication, industrialized construction, affordability, quality, and the total cost of ownership. Erdman's early Doctors Park concept was a forward-thinking healthcare model for the 1950s, bringing multiple physician practices together in an accessible, community-based setting at a time when many physicians worked from downtown offices, hospitals, or even made house calls. The firm's "under one roof" model — bringing planning, design, construction, delivery, and advisory thinking together — continues to influence Erdman's culture, even as the firm has evolved beyond its earlier design-build structure. Mike emphasizes that healthcare projects need a clear "why." A project should be the right project, in the right place, at the right time, and sustainable for the owner and the community it serves. Women have played an important role in Erdman's history and continue to shape healthcare design today, particularly through interior design, architecture, patient perspective, and multidisciplinary collaboration. Healthcare environments need to be designed at a human scale. Mike challenges the tendency to create large, complicated healthcare footprints that designers then spend enormous energy trying to humanize. Daylight, nature, gardens, respite, views, and access to the outdoors are not decorative extras. They are essential to how patients, families, and staff experience care. Interior design and interior architecture are especially important in healthcare spaces that cannot ...
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    50 mins
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