About Our Guest

Dr. Anjali Joseph is the Spartanburg Regional Health System Endowed Chair in Architecture and Health Design and Director of the Center for Health Facilities Design and Testing at Clemson University.

Her research focuses on using simulation and prototyping methods to evaluate design solutions that improve patient safety in high-stress healthcare environments. Through multidisciplinary approaches, she studies how the built environment influences patient safety, staff performance, workflow, and overall health and well-being.

Dr. Joseph has worked extensively at the intersection of healthcare design, human behavior, and patient safety. Her work includes research on operating room design, workflow disruptions, and the development and evaluation of safer, more ergonomic healthcare environments.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• Understanding the Built Environment: What it means and how the physical design of healthcare spaces influences human behavior, performance, and well-being.
• The Importance of OR Design: How room layout, equipment placement, storage, and traffic flow can contribute to workflow disruptions and safety challenges.
• A Multidisciplinary Approach: Why involving surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists, architects, and engineers leads to better operating room design.
• Testing Before Building: How physical mock-ups and simulation help surgical teams identify problems and evaluate design solutions before construction.
• Small Changes, Big Impact: Why even minor equipment additions or room modifications can affect workflow, ergonomics, and patient safety.
• Advocating for Better Workspaces: How clinicians can communicate concerns and become more involved in decisions about their working environments.

Resources Mentioned

1. Clemson University – Center for Health Facilities Design and Testing

Access the three free volumes of RIPCHD.OR (Research and Innovation in Patient Care and Health Design – Operating Room). These resources summarize research, design principles, and guidelines for operating room design.

https://open.clemson.edu/chfdt/

2. OR Flow Mapping Toolkit

A resource to help healthcare teams understand and evaluate movement and workflow within the operating room.

https://www.clemson.edu/centers-institutes/health-facilities-design-testing/files/flow-mapping-toolkit.pdf

3. The Clemson Healthcare Work System Ergonomic Assessment Toolkit

A resource for evaluating ergonomic features of healthcare workspaces, including computer workstation configurations and their integration into the broader work system.

https://www.clemson.edu/centers-institutes/health-facilities-design-testing/files/the-clemson-healthcare-system-ergonomic.pdf

4. Interactive 3D Operating Room Mock-Up

Explore the physical operating room mock-up developed through Dr. Joseph's research using this interactive 3D walkthrough.

https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=RZPzh1SgKxV

The operating room is more than a space where procedures take place. It is a complex environment where people, equipment, technology, and workflows come together.

As Dr. Joseph reminds us, we cannot simply train healthcare professionals to work around poorly designed environments. We need to design spaces that support the people working in them.

And that starts with involving clinicians in the design process.

Connect with Dr. Anjali Joseph

You can learn more about Dr. Joseph and her work through the following channels:

• LinkedIn: Dr. Anjali Joseph
• Instagram: @anjalijoseph25
• Center for Health Facilities Design and Testing: LinkedIn

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