Williston architecture firm promotes pandemic-safe design

Jennifer Arbuckle in her office at Environments for Health in Williston. The architecture firm specializes in health care design, and has found itself a key voice in the discussion over how to design pandemic-safe buildings. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Arbuckle.

Williston-based Environments for Health (E4H), an architecture firm specializing in health care projects, has found itself thrust into a national discussion around how to best design safe healthcare spaces amid the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Experts at E4H propose using ultraviolet light technology for contactless cleaning and infection control, creating patient rooms to be more flexible, and making telehealth a more widely-used option for getting patients in front of a healthcare professional, particularly for underserved populations.

Jennifer Arbuckle, a partner at E4H, has been at the firm in Williston for over 25 years. She moved to Vermont after graduating from Syracuse University as a temporary move, but never left. She smiles as she calls Vermont her home and the place she wants to live her life. 

“I decided in 6th grade that I wanted to be an architect and I really never changed my mind,” Arbuckle said. 

In Vermont, E4H has recently finished renovation on the main hospital campus at the University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMMC).

“There was a lot of design thought and effort,” Arbuckle said of the UVMMC project. She did not work on it directly, she said. “Of course it’s here in our backyard so we all were quite aware of it,” Arbuckle said.

“The most recent significant project that many people are familiar with is the Miller Building and patient expansion. That project was finished a year and a half ago,” Arbuckle said. The renovation was over before the pandemic started, but 128 new patient rooms were implemented in the renovation. 

With the new renovation, more multi-purpose patient rooms were added to give more flexibility. 

“Trying to design around flexibility, so making sure that the space we design for them (hospitals) can be repurposed quickly with what they need,” Arbuckle said.  

With limits on staff and patient movement, there is less chance of spreading a virus or disease like Covid-19. Technologies like ultraviolet light create an opportunity to design buildings that can passively minimize infections.

“UV light has been used for cleaning on a small scale previously because it is expensive and takes time,” Arbuckle said, adding that direct exposure can be harmful to humans. “Is there a way to build in a safe amount of UV light that continuously cleans?” 

Building in a safe amount of UV lighting would limit wasted materials such as wipes and disinfectant spray while also limiting human contact with infected surfaces, Arbuckle said. 

Arbuckle finds the silver lining in the COVID-19 devastation, explaining how telehealth, a new feature in most healthcare facilities which eliminates the need to physically attend an appointment, will help underserved communities. People without transportation. or time to travel. are able to now virtually meet with their healthcare provider. Arbunkle predicts telehealth will remain popular after the pandemic is over.  

“There is a whole host of underserved people who will have better healthcare as a result of some of these changes. There are some silver linings in this pandemic,” Arbuckle said. 

“Boston children’s hospital predicted 40 Telahealth visits a month, as of May they were at 2000, that’s a big change.” Arbuckle’s clients include Elizabethtown Community hospital and Blythedale Children's Hospital in Valhalla, New York. 

“There are certain projects that you feel a strong connection to,” Arbuckle said. That connection for her is the Blythedale Children's Rehabilitation Hospital, which she has been working with since 2003. “The mission of the hospital creates some deep things as you think about the design and trying to create the right place for patients and families there.” 

E4H has overseen major upgrades to the hospital in the last 15 or 20 years, which included a bed replacement project and a pediatric long term care plan.  

There are eight E4H offices around the country, mainly in the Eastern and Southern U.S and they are looking to expand West. 

Arbuckle and her team at E4H said it has been a “tricky” year, but the Williston location is through the worst. There has been less work since stay at home orders started and hospitals have been swamped with patients. Arbuckle continues to work from home and from the Williston office as the firm moves forward in design and construction plans in 2021.