Not all architects, interior designer, and healthcare consulting engineers have the same level of knowledge or experience in healthcare design. Just as it would be ill advised to seek the help of a gynecologist to perform a total knee replacement, it is equally ill advised to go to any board-certified architect without first determining his/her specialty expertise. Unfortunately, there are situations when selecting the design consultant is very political. Board members or decision makers may have friends who are architects and may prefer to hire these individuals or firms although they do not have healthcare design experience. Hiring architects who do not have healthcare expertise for complex healthcare project often results in major design flaws requiring redesign, change orders during construction, increased construction costs, increase operational costs or unanticipated full-time equivalents resulting from faulty design, and most importantly, environmental hazards that lead to patient or employee injuries. Healthcare design is a complex process requiring in-depth knowledge and experience of design requirements and recommendations from the architectural professional organizations, state regulations related to building codes and public safety, trends and policies in healthcare, and specific evidence from previous project that have produced expected or desired results. Healthcare design is a unique specialty of architecture, interior design, and the consulting engineers. For the purpose of this article, design firms will refer to all of the design groups previously mentioned.