FreemanWhite, an architectural, engineering, interior design and consulting services firm for health care organizations in the United States, has completed design of a 9,800-square-foot hospice care facility for University Health Systems in Greenville.
The free-standing facility under construction on 3.5 acres will include a customized care environment designed to treat terminally ill individuals with compassion and respect. Each of the eight suites is angled to give patients the largest possible view of their environment, including family members and friends in the adjacent sitting area, and the natural world outside. French doors open to expand the suite onto a covered porch and into a garden.
The design focuses on creating a homelike environment. In each patient suite, the wood floors, soft colors, crown molding, raised-panel doors and attractive furnishings comprise a space that is comfortable.
Display areas around the patient accommodate personal items such as cards, flowers, mementoes and photographs. The displays also conceal the institutional necessities of electrical and medical gas outlets.
The inpatient hospice facility is on the campus of Pitt County Memorial Hospital, the flagship hospital for University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina and the teaching hospital for the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University.
Founded in 1892, FreemanWhite has offices in Charlotte, Raleigh and San Diego and employs more than 200 professionals. The firm has received numerous awards and recognitions, including being named the 2005 North Carolina AIA Firm of the Year, the 15th largest health care firm in the United States in 2006 by Modern Healthcare magazine and the 13th best architecture firm to work for nationally in 2007 by ZweigWhite.
In 2008, the firm was ranked No. 1 in the Triangle Business Journal's annual Book of Lists for largest North Carolina architects and received the Citation of Merit Award from Healthcare Design magazine for Pitt County Memorial Hospital's Pediatric Pallative Care Unit.
