David R. Vincent, AIA, ACHA HKS Inc., Dallas Diane H. Tasian, Assoc. AIA HKS Inc., Dallas Daniel Stromberg, MD Children's Medical Center, Dallas

When Children's Medical Center of Dallas (CMCD) was faced with the task of expanding its cardiology intensive care services, the perfect opportunity arose to step beyond the traditional patient room mock-up process and into interim occupancy and evaluation. CMCD is in the midst of master planning the future of its main campus; by responding to the immediate, intermediate, and long-term market demand, and a desire to craft a healing environment, CMCD created an opportunity to study a prototypical patient room over an extended time period. CMCD, working with HKS, Inc., built an interim 11-bed CICU suite adjacent to an existing 20-bed critical care service and will continue to evaluate the patient room prototype and associated refinements, which will then be employed in subsequent expansions. This article documents fundamental planning issues, both conceptual and detailed, in designing a CICU addition. It also addresses some of the design modifications imposed by existing conditions.

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