Megan McNally, CHID, Elected to American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designers Board of Directors

Megan McNally, Associate Director of Interior Design, joins us to share her passion for healthcare interior design and offers her perspective as the newest elected board member for the American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designers (AAHID) Board of Directors beginning January 1. 

Q: Why is interior design critical in healthcare environments?

A: With this highly specialized expertise, healthcare interior designers understand the complexities of inpatient, outpatient and residential care settings as it relates to building layout, staff and patient flow, safety, materiality, furniture, fixtures and equipment (FF&E), acoustics, and lighting. Effective interior design can lead to improved patient outcomes by providing opportunities for connection, supporting communities that are most vulnerable, inspiring wellness and optimism, and reinforcing an organization’s brand and mission.

Q: What methods and tools do you use to help guide stakeholders through the design process?

A: Our first step in the design process is to understand the goal and vision with the customer, which is typically defined in user group meetings. Once defined, we guide the customer through a series of key exercises to explore and evaluate design opportunities. We start with an exercise called journey mapping that helps identify how patients, families, guests and staff interact with the environment during their visit. We think about someone that may have just received a cancer diagnosis, experienced a car accident, or a family dealing with the unexpected loss of a loved one. And while journey mapping exercises do not encompass an entire user population, it does set the framework for the team to identify key areas of interest and high use, reoccurring movement, and opportunities to further highlight specific design elements to improve the user experience. We also use full-scale mock-ups to help the design team evaluate the layout and solution alongside the project stakeholders to inform functionality, workflow and processes, features and critical criteria. Last, we use several digital platforms to provide experiential walk-throughs to help the customer better visualize and experience the design solution.

Q: What is your typical role on a project?

A: My role is to create environments that elevate the human experience and provide occupants with a sense of place as they navigate often stressful situations. As a Certified Healthcare Interior Designer (CHID), I am trained to understand the critical issues that impact the healthcare environment and its users, ranging from implications of cleanability and long-term maintenance, infection prevention, navigation and wayfinding, acoustical considerations and safety. At Ryan, I lead our interior visioning and visualization experience with stakeholders, and work alongside the architectural team to capture critical feedback and space requirements – including staff and patient efficiencies, materials and equipment flow, safety and security. Additionally, interior design plays a critical role in making spaces easy to navigate, through memorable features and artwork, intuitive visual cues, and opportunities to interact and view the outdoors.

Q: What is changing for healthcare interior design as a result of the pandemic?

A: The one thing that the pandemic has made even more clear is that healthcare design is not a one-size-fits-all solution. As we plan, design, adapt, remodel and build, it is crucial to consider the varying demographics health systems are serving. Varying levels of intervention are needed, ranging from finish products that that are impermeable, scrubbable, gasketed and seamless to operational changes that will address patient and staff flow that could create new and innovative ways of handling patient care, triage, or rooming practices.  Our Ryan healthcare design team explored various areas of intervention as they relate to healthcare design in the post-pandemic world. You can read more about our recommendations here: “Designing for Change: Healthcare Design in a Post-COVID World.”

Q: What are organizations like AAHID doing right now to help support the changing care environment?
A: From an industry perspective, organizations like AAHID are acting as a resource to both interior designers and healthcare organizations with COVID-specific communication. AAHID supports new research and product recommendations, industry partner initiatives, and free educational opportunities.

Q:   What defines a successful healthcare interior environment?

A: For me, a successful healthcare environment creates a positive impact for its occupants, from patients, residents and staff to visitors and family members. This can be where a new mom experiences greater connectivity and optimism in a NICU, or a safe and supportive space that allows for control and orientation to natural light for those experiencing a mental health crisis. Another measure of success for me is when our customers embrace adaptability and flexibility, stretching their perception of how healthcare environments can function in the future. This is especially evident during this time of COVID when protocols and distancing have altered the traditional delivery model. Regardless of whether we design for inpatient, outpatient and residential care settings, a successful environment is functional and inspiring, engages stakeholders and team members throughout the design process, and provides spaces where people can thrive.

About the American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designers

The AAHID administers the only certification program - Certified Healthcare Interior Designer (CHID) - for healthcare interior designers in the U.S. and Canada and evaluates the designers by education, examination, training, and experience to provide interior design services to the healthcare industry. The healthcare industry regards the CHID credential as the standard for determining advanced knowledge and experience related to the challenges of the healthcare environment.

About Megan and the Ryan Healthcare Team

In her role on the AAHID Board of Directors, Megan is committed to advancing the practice of healthcare interior design by fostering a positive change for the organization and enhancing the health, quality and safety of healthcare interior environments. In addition to the appellation of Certified Healthcare Interior Designer (CHID), Megan holds the Evidence-Based Design Accredited Professional (EDAC) credential from the Center of Health Design, is a Certified Interior Designer (CID) with the State of Minnesota, has served as Adjunct Instructor at Dunwoody College of Technology, and is a regular mentor and critic with the University of Minnesota Interior Design program. With over 12 years of experience designing award-winning healthcare environments, Megan is intimately involved in programming and planning efforts and leads the conceptual interior design process for our acute and ambulatory care, senior living and wellness customers.

Megan plays a key role on the healthcare team at Ryan, which also includes experts across disciplines in healthcare design, development, construction, management and financing. Ryan’s healthcare team has provided real estate and facility solutions for health systems and provider groups across the country, delivering nearly 90 projects in the past five years. To learn more about Ryan’s healthcare efforts, click here.