June 2022
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Focus: Healthcare Facilities Restoring Trust through Dignified Healthcare Design
by Gerard Georges and Jay Verspyck
As architects at Build Health International (BHI), a healthcare design and construction nonprofit committed to providing infrastructure solutions in lowand middle-income countries, designing facilities that inspire trust is at the heart of our work. Over the past decade, BHI has worked on over 200 healthcare projects in 28 countries, but the importance of instilling trust through design has never been greater than it is for the Maternal Center of Excellence (MCOE) in Sierra Leone. In 2015, Sierra Leone was at the height of the Ebola epidemic and was also the country with the highest maternal mortality rate in the world. Throughout the epidemic, hospitals became vectors for the disease, discouraging mothers from seeking prenatal care or visiting
The Maternal Center of Excellence will be a 10-building, 143-bed facility, complete with a maternity ward, outpatient department, NICU, and surgical suites, as well as waiting rooms, courtyards, and dormitories. / Renderings courtesy of BHI, ArtPixel 3D
the hospital to give birth. These dueling burdens, in addition to the lingering effects of a decade-long civil war, led to a widespread distrust of the healthcare system. Today, Sierra Leone still holds one of the highest mortality rates in the world where one in 20 women face a lifetime risk of dying in pregnancy and childbirth. Aiming to restore trust and provide dignified care, while simultaneously
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addressing the barriers to safe maternal healthcare across Sierra Leone, Partners in Health (PIH) teamed up with BHI to design and build the MCOE. To address and combat long-standing distrust, every aspect of the MCOE has been intentionally designed with healing, privacy, and comfort in mind. The MCOE will feature generous outdoor spaces including courtyards, a waiting pavilion, and kitchens, which
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will create a space for patients and their families to wait comfortably and decompress. These large, shaded outdoor areas will also serve a dual purpose as gathering spaces for clinical staff to facilitate community education and engagement programs. Placing an emphasis on social spaces will foster a sense of shared experience, a key continued to page 12
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