A Design-Forward Med-Surg FitOut for Inova Women’s & Children’s Hospital

Wilmot Sanz is proud to highlight the newly completed 7th Floor Medical–Surgical Patient Unit at Inova Women’s & Children’s Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia—a project that demonstrates how thoughtful design, technical rigor, and deep clinical collaboration can elevate a full floor fit-out within one of the region’s most active hospitals.

Delivered in partnership with HITT Contracting, this LEED Silver–designed project adds meaningful capacity and refreshing modernity to a hospital already known for exceptional women’s and pediatric care.

A Patient-Centered Expansion Rooted in Inova’s Systemwide Vision

The 42,000-square-foot fit-out includes:

• 48 new patient rooms
• Nurse stations and distributed team collaboration zones
• Staff support spaces
• Family-friendly lobby and waiting areas

All componnts were designed to align with Inova’s visual brand and interior standards while meeting the unique needs of a med-surg environment serving families, caregivers, and interdisciplinary care teams.

‍Design Highlights

Borrowed Light at Core Team Stations

One of the project’s signature design features is the integration of borrowed light into the core team stations. Glass openings and interior glazing pull daylight deep into the floor plate, improving visibility for clinical staff and creating a brighter, more connected environment—particularly valuable on a large, rectilinear inpatient floor.

A Distinctive Material Palette

To elevate staff experience, the design introduces a glass tile installation in the staff lounge—adding visual depth, a clean modern aesthetic, and a moment of respite within a high-acuity setting—alongside textural wallcovering in respite rooms, selected for its calming, serene qualities and ability to create a restorative micro-environment for caregivers during breaks.

Solving the Rectilinear Challenge

One of the project’s primary technical challenges involved adapting strict eastern-region design standards—highly rectilinear in character—to an existing floor plate not originally optimized for such rulesets.

Another layer of complexity came from refining patient room headwall and footwall alignment, ensuring clinical workflows, medical gases, observation access, and family accommodation worked seamlessly within the inherited geometry.

Rigorous Room-by-Room Validation

Every room type—including clinical, support, and family spaces—underwent detailed validation with end users. Through iterative reviews, full-scale mock-ups, and careful alignment with nurse and physician feedback, the final layouts reflect true operational functionality rather than assumptions.

Seamless Construction in a Sensitive Hospital Environment

The design and construction teams delivered the project with exemplary coordination and precision, navigating:

• Active patient units directly above and below the work area
• Noise-sensitive operations requiring phased construction
• NavVis 3D modeling for accurate existing-conditions documentation
• Full-scale room mock-ups to ensure clinical buy-in and reduce downstream changes

Their team worked in close partnership with Inova physicians, nurses, operational staff, and our design team—ensuring every detail supported care quality, staff efficiency, and patient comfort.

Post-Occupancy Insights

Now fully inhabited, the unit reflects exactly what the design intended:

• Team stations alive with movement and collaboration
• Family spaces used intuitively
• Patient rooms functioning efficiently
• Staff utilizing respite zones as intended

Seeing the floor operational—patients receiving care, families gathering, staff working with clarity and confidence—underscores that the design is both purpose-driven and appropriately calibrated to the needs of this high-performing clinical environment.

A Model for Future Med-Surg Fit-Outs

For healthcare systems considering patient-floor expansions or renovations, this project demonstrates:

• How to align existing floor plates with modern design standards
• How daylighting strategies can enhance staff performance—even in constrained inpatient cores
• How high-quality staff and respite spaces contribute to wellness and retention
• How thorough validation reduces risk and increases operational adoption
• How phased, low-disruption construction can succeed in sensitive occupied hospitals

As Inova continues to advance its vision for exceptional women’s and children’s care, this new med-surg unit stands as a testament to what purposeful design and true partnership can achieve.