Froedtert & the Medical College to Host National Healthcare Design Conference

Froedtert & The Medical College to Host National Healthcare Design Conference

Wauwatosa resident championed evidence-based approach to building design

Milwaukee, WI, (April 14, 2009) – More than 125 healthcare design leaders from throughout the United States will convene in Milwaukee April 20-22 to discuss new ideas and research about innovative building design that improve care quality. Hosted by Froedtert & The Medical College of Wisconsin, the Pebble Partners Colloquium will include presentation of three evidence-based design projects at the Froedtert & The Medical College Clinical Cancer Center and a tour of the Clinical Cancer Center, which opened last May.

The three-day, private “think tank” session brings together participants in the California-based Center for Health Design’s Pebble Project research program, which was founded in 2000 to encourage building design that measurably improves the quality of care.

Wauwatosa resident John Balzer, vice president of facility planning and design for Froedtert & Community Health, championed the evidence-based design concept at Froedtert Hospital and was instrumental in bringing the Pebble Partners Colloquium to Milwaukee.

“Froedtert Hospital was among the first to join the Pebble Project initiative,” said Balzer. “We believe in evidence-based medicine so it’s logical to carry that conviction through to building design that can have a positive, measurable impact on patient care.”

The Pebble Projects currently underway at the Clinical Cancer Center focus on three key areas—the Interdisciplinary or “Hub” Care Model, the Day Hospital and the Quality of Life Center—and will measure whether these innovative approaches affect care quality and patient satisfaction.

In addition to touring the Clinical Cancer Center, attendees at the three-day event also will be able to tour Froedtert Hospital’s new North Tower addition; Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin’s West Tower expansion; and St. Joseph’s Hospital in West Bend, which has received national recognition for care quality and patient safety features in its design.

Froedtert Hospital is a 450-bed academic medical center staffed by faculty of the Medical College of Wisconsin. The hospital employs more than 1,400 registered nurses and is one of just 230 hospitals in the country to receive the prestigious Magnet designation by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. It serves as an eastern Wisconsin referral center for advanced medical practice care in 37 specialties and subspecialties. It is a major training and research facility with more than 1,000 medical, nursing and health technical students in training and over 2,000 active clinical trials each year. Froedtert, part of Froedtert & Community Health, operates the region’s only adult Level One Trauma Center.