President
Institute for Patient-Centered Design, Inc.
FOCUS
To build a Culture of Health, it is necessary to include a variety of perspectives. As a health care architect, Dr. Tammy Thompson is approaching this problem from four angles. As a health care administrator, she is working to build patient and family advisory councils (PFAC) for her health system by expanding access to all stakeholders. As an industry leader, Dr. Tammy facilitates trainings for design teams seeking to create safe spaces for transparency and supportive health care delivery in the facilities they develop. She also teaches architectural engineering in North Carolina A&T State University’s College of Engineering, in efforts to increase the number of architects with a variety of lived experience, particularly in health care design. Finally, Tammy is directly addressing the social determinants of health to help build a Culture of Health.
Dr. Tammy is tackling these issues to expand resources and access to communities in need. Designers should engage end users in collaborative solution-finding to ensure they are addressing the needs of all users. Acknowledging that inclusive design teams are more innovative, she is breaking barriers to participation in PFAC. In addition, design professionals should represent a variety of demographics to facilitate open, constructive discussions about the needs of stakeholders and creative strategies to solve the problems they face.
STRATEGIC INITIATIVE: Community Well-being Zone - Living Learning Lab for Fresh Food & Nutrition Literacy
In eastern North Carolina, nutrition is viewed as a regional priority. Dr. Thompson’s strategic initiative sought to address food insecurity and health literacy gaps in underserved populations. ECU Health in eastern North Carolina offers community members open access to visit the Community Well-being Zone to harvest free, fresh foods and receive nutrition education. Participants practice gardening to learn how they may grow fresh food at home. This initiative addresses inequities that exist among community members with low health literacy and residents who do not have ready access to fresh food or land for planting gardens. This strategic initiative increases fresh foods available and the understanding of related health benefits, promoting a reduction in health conditions associated with poor diets, such as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. Community Health Needs Assessments were used to identify needs, and these assessments will be used to measure the project’s success. In addition, reports on fresh produce and plants distributed from this site may quantify the increase in healthy foods given to the public. Partners include Institute for Patient-centered Design and ECU Health Beaufort Hospital.
MORE ABOUT TAMMY
Dr. Tammy Thompson is a registered architect and interior designer, specializing in health care facility design for 25 years. She is the president and founder of the Institute for Patient Centered Design, where she has delivered thoughtful educational sessions and workshops that focus on the patient experience for 14 years. Tammy serves as Corporate Director of Experience Engagement, Education, and Design for a large rural health system of nine hospitals and nearly 200 clinics, a system that was named top hospital in the country for patient experience by Becker’s Hospital Review. Tammy has responsibilities for Patient and Family Advisory Councils, Patient Education, and the Reimagine Design Lab, an internal service that allows her team to partner with clinical and non-clinical teams to design supportive experiences for patients, families and care team members. As a certified patient experience professional, Tammy serves on the editorial board of the Patient Experience Journal, she is a Beryl Institute Research Scholar, and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Leader. Tammy is an adjunct faculty member in the College of Engineering at NC A&T State University, where she currently serves as a digital learning faculty fellow. Her case study on fostering a culture of respect in health care may be found in the November 2024 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
TAMMY’S WORK AND VISION
- Click here to see the playbook for the ECU Health Community Well-being Zone.
- ECU Health Community Well-being Zone
- Institute for Patient-Centered Design, Inc.