Cancer patient helps design hospitals
Diana Spellman and her husband, Stan Spellman, run Spellman Brady & Co., which provides interior planning and design, furniture purchasing, artwork planning and brand identity for health care, higher education and senior living organizations.
The company, based in Clayton, has been in business since 1991. It has planned more than 25 million square feet of space and managed purchases of more than $470 million in furniture, soft goods and artwork.
As a cancer survivor, Diana says the disease helped teach her ways to improve her work.
How do you and Stan, your husband of 25 years, divide job duties?
Stan is the vice president. I’m the president. He handles design and technical solutions while I’m more the voice — pick up the phone, find the clients. I’m a people person. In business, I’m also very much of a strategist.
What is the primary strategy of your business model?
We pursue the concept of bridging the gap between the owners — our clients — and the architects and contractors.
What you see, touch and feel in an environment are furniture and the artwork. Construction and architecture are extremely important, but that’s still the shell to hold everything else. Understanding what architects are doing with design and what owners are doing to make the most of their budgets leads to creation of a project that’s the best it can be and one that comes in under budget.
How did you incorporate your fight against cancer into the way you approach your work?
I grew up in Mason City, Iowa, where my dad was a doctor. He would drag my brother and I to the emergency room in the ’60s when he had to meet someone at the ER cash advance payday loans. We would sit in wheelchairs in the hallway. All the doctors and nurses smoked! I remember walking through those facilities where everything was tile. It echoed, and it smelled like alcohol.
When I was 50 I discovered I had breast cancer. My prognosis now is good. I feel passionate about creating a culture that feels positive to the doctors, nurses, administrators and, of course, the patients and their families.
What specific Spellman Brady project used this approach?
A good example is the Illinois Cancer Center in Peoria. The project was so fabulous to work on in 2002 and 2003. The center is part of Oncology Hematology Associates of Central Illinois, one of the largest private oncology practices in the country.
The center is at the edge of a prairie. A design challenge was to bring the views and serene setting into the building. Colors, materials, artwork, lighting and textures help produce a warm, calming environment. Seemingly small things can be important. Instead of placing chemotherapy recliners in small treatment rooms, we faced them toward windows with beautiful prairie views.
Did your cancer treatment include any don’t-do-it-like-this moments?
Absolutely. Having gone through cancer treatments made me more sensitive to the patient experience in that transitional time. Some things were so inappropriate. Once during a needle biopsy the background music being played was the theme from Romeo and Juliet. Another time the printer used for medical billing was in the patients’ hearing range. Those situations aren’t good for patients. There’s nowhere to feel fully embraced.
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