Healthcare design has come a long way in recent decades as it seeks to acknowledge the role of the facility in a patient’s healing process. Increasingly, the process is taking the unique needs of patients in indigenous and sovereign jurisdictions into consideration.

Patients in these communities are a vastly diverse group living in conditions that vary widely from coast to coast in a number of geographic, social and economic metrics, all of which impact health outcomes, according to Healthcare Facilities Management. 

Healthcare designers working within these boundaries often must navigate the dilapidated condition of existing facilities, remoteness of existing healthcare facilities to tribal population centers, immense cultural diversity, and the widespread dignity deficit that originates from a lack of health sovereignty in many native health systems.

Seven Generations AE, a tribally owned architecture and engineering firm based in Kalamazoo, Mich., is working on the forefront of a long-standing health crisis in these communities that is characterized by a lack of access to adequate medical facilities and a corresponding deterioration in health outcomes that continues to worsen in many tribal nations. 

The outcomes of working with tribal and federal organizations to address deficiencies in the physical environment and expand the available health services in three distinct geographic contexts 

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