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Healthcare environments are expected to feel more welcoming for patients, support clinical teams, stand up to daily use, and justify long-term investment. That creates a real challenge: multiple stakeholders are evaluating the same setting through very different lenses. Too often, specification conversations focus on products, features, or preferences instead of the more important question: What does this setting actually require? That’s why MillerKnoll developed the Healthcare Setting Performance Criteria — an evidence-based methodology to help teams evaluate furniture on the demands of each environment, not just how it looks. The Healthcare Setting Performance Criteria considers accessibility, usability, cleanability, durability, and investment, with each setting evaluated on a 5-point scale based on the level of demand required. Because the future of healthcare design isn’t choosing between hospitality and performance. It’s helping every stakeholder make better decisions, together. As healthcare environments continue to evolve, how is your team defining performance before decisions are made? #HealthcareDesign #HealthcareLeadership #PatientExperience #HealthcareFacilities #EvidenceBasedDesign #MillerKnoll Explore the methodology here: https://lnkd.in/eFhXsKmb

What does it mean for furniture to perform well in an environmental setting? For designers, performance is more than how a product functions. It's about how a setting makes people feel. This is especially true in healthcare environments which support some of life's most meaningful and vulnerable moments. They can ease uncertainty, create comfort, support clinical staff, and help people feel more connected to those around them. Every setting plays a different role in that experience. A patient room serves different needs than a family lounge. A nurses’ station requires different support than a waiting area. Thoughtful design recognizes these differences and responds with intention. A performance-based approach helps designers connect clinical requirements with human needs, balancing operational demands within settings that feel welcoming, supportive, and even restorative. Consider seating that accommodates a range of mobility needs. Materials that support rigorous cleaning protocols. Components designed to adapt over time. Individually, these decisions may seem small. Together, they shape how people experience care. We know that great healthcare design isn't simply about specifying products. It's about creating environments that help people feel seen, supported, and cared for. Our healthcare specialists have codified decades of research, product innovation, and real-world learning into a performance-based approach that helps designers make more intentional specification decisions, placing the right product in the right setting to support people, care delivery, and long-term outcomes. Check out our insight and inspiration resources for your next healthcare project. https://lnkd.in/gpK2YMev #HealthcareDesign #EvidenceBasedDesign #PatientExperience #HealthcareFacilities #MillerKnoll

What are we asking healthcare furniture to do? For designers, the answer reaches beyond any single product. It includes the client’s investment, the demands of a clinical setting, and the experience of a person receiving care. Thoughtful specification brings these considerations into the same conversation. That begins with how we define performance. At MillerKnolll, performance is the degree to which a product or environment supports the human, clinical, operational, and financial requirements of a healthcare setting over time. This definition makes room for both clinical rigor and human needs. It recognizes that a welcoming environment and a well-performing one can be the same place. Our performance-based methodology puts that thinking into practice. A structure for those decisions, helping designers balance competing priorities while keeping people in view. MillerKnoll’s interactive checklist of Furniture Design Features and Healthcare Outcomes helps designers align specifications with the unique demands of each setting through five performance dimensions: ✓ Accessibility ✓ Usability ✓ Cleanability ✓ Durability ✓ Investment Give it a try…our performance-based approach helps designers specify healthcare furniture with confidence, placing the right product in the right setting to support people, care delivery, and long-term outcomes. https://lnkd.in/gpK2YMev

Healthcare leaders talk a lot about patient experience, staff burnout, and operational efficiency. Rarely do we connect those conversations to furniture procurement. Maybe we should. Not all healthcare settings require the same level of performance. Yet many procurement strategies still treat them as if they do. The result can be overspending in some areas, underperforming in others, and missed opportunities to improve the patient, caregiver, and staff experience. The reality is that an emergency department, patient room, family lounge, and consult settings each have different clinical, operational, and human requirements. The most effective healthcare environments align furniture, materials, and investments to the specific needs of each setting. Better specifications don't just create better spaces. They create better outcomes. Want to see what a performance-based approach looks like in practice? Explore our MillerKnoll’s Healthcare Settings lookbook and discover how different environments can balance patient experience, staff support, durability, and long-term value. https://lnkd.in/eFhXsKmb #HealthcareLeadership #PatientExperience #HealthcareFacilities #HealthcareProcurement #HealthcareStrategy #HealthcareDesign #EvidenceBasedDesign

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