Masonry and the Patient Experience in Healthcare Facilities

It's been well-documented that the environment in and around a healthcare facility has a profound effect on patient care and recovery. While brick may not be the first material that springs to mind, masonry contributes to energy savings and low exterior maintenance, and can also assist with patient wayfinding and provide a sense of permanence in the community. Masonry Design Magazine set out to showcase brick masonry and natural stone in a positive light in some recently constructed healthcare facilities. One of the three national case studies they chose is the Page-designed Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital (HMTWH). Read on to learn more.

Page Healthcare Director and project manager for HMTWH Brian Gray attributed the success of the project to the extreme hands-on coordination and involvement by the design team and testing for the detailing and performance of the envelope. The facility is a full-service, acute-care hospital serving the north Houston region. The 187-bed, 470,000-square-foot hospital sits next to  the campus’ first medical office building (MOB), which opened in March 2016 and has 162,000 square feet of space. A second MOB, six stories tall and more than 160,000 square feet, and a parking garage were completed in 2018.

Camarata Masonry Systems Ltd. (CMS) supplied and installed the masonry for both the hospital and first MOB, which included brick, granite, marble and stone veneer. Knee-high walls around the exterior of the hospital were also built out of the stone veneer, providing outdoor paths and benches for patients and visitors. CMS explained in the article how their materials were aligned to meet design objectives. 

Rene Lozano, operations manager – masonry division with CMS, worked on the MOB and hospital project and commented on how patients might perceive the two buildings. “We envision this hospital serving the community for a very long time,” he says, “and we used masonry to go with that concept. What changes with hospitals is inside, whether it’s advancements in equipment or updated procedures. But when the outside is built of brick and stone, it can last for a long period of time and doesn’t require a lot of maintenance. People in The Woodlands community will know this hospital is there for the long term.”

To read the article in Masonry Design Magazine in full, click here. 

To learn more about Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital, click here. 

To learn more about Page's work on community hospitals, click here. 

To review Page's Healthcare portfolio, click here.