April Sampson Cancer Center Earns 2025 Healthcare Environment Award

The April Sampson Cancer Center has been named a recipient of the 2025 Healthcare Environment Award by The Center for Health Design, recognizing healthcare facilities that implement standards of design to improve patient outcomes.

The facility is on the newly established Bryan South Campus in Lincoln, Nebraska and was designed by Ballinger, a multi-disciplinary architecture and engineering firm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is the home of Cancer Partners of Nebraska and Bryan Medical Center imaging and cancer support programs.

“It’s very meaningful to receive this recognition because a healing environment was at the forefront in designing this facility. From the very beginning, listening to patient feedback was at the heart of our efforts. Focus groups and in-depth conversations revealed needs, experiences and aspirations of our patients,” said Stephanie Boldt, system vice president for physician partnerships and facility services, Bryan Health. “As Bryan enters its next 100 years, it’s fitting the April Sampson Cancer Center is recognized for fulfilling the visions of our philanthropic supporters, physicians and our team - looking forward and demonstrating what the next generation of service holds.”

The Healthcare Environment Awards celebrate exemplary healthcare design that improves safety, enhances experiences, increases organizational efficiency and improves outcomes. The program is administered by the Center for Health Design, a non-profit organization advancing an evidence-based design process to improve healthcare. Recipients were selected by an esteemed jury of academics, designers, executives, patient and family advisers and researchers.

“Every detail at the April Sampson Cancer Center was shaped with patient insights in mind,” said Dr. Steven Dunder, medical oncologist, Cancer Partners of Nebraska. “It is architecturally stunning but also deeply functional for our physicians and comforting and intuitive for the patients who walk through its doors.”

The April Sampson Cancer Center is thoughtfully designed to blend with its natural surroundings, embracing the site’s meadows, woods and water features. Inside, warm and inviting interiors foster a healing environment that nurtures the well-being of patients, caregivers and visitors while meeting rigorous clinical and operational demands.

“While the April Sampson Cancer Center is a place for people to go when they are very sick, the attention to detail in this building has made it a place that also feels of hope and healing,” said Gina Boe, a patient undergoing treatment at the facility. “I’m so thankful this is a space where I look forward to visiting and the aesthetic surroundings remind us there is beauty in suffering.”

Learn more about the services offered at the April Sampson Cancer Center.