An article in the Harvard Business Review reports that hospital design can improve clinical outcomes as well as patient satisfaction. In fact, research continues to show that specific design concepts can prevent the spread of hospital-acquired infections, reduce patient pain, and shorten hospital stays. It seems obvious that newly designed hospitals with hotel-like amenities will increase patient satisfaction. But researchers are now actually measuring before and after costs and outcomes of these newly designed hospitals.
Some design-related findings highlighted in the article:
- A university hospital cut hospital-acquired infections by more than half by redesigning its intensive care unit from shared to all private rooms.
- Images of nature that hang in the lounge of an acute psychiatric clinic saved a hospital more than $30,000 in injections that would have otherwise been used to calm agitated patients.
- A redesign of maternity and neonatal units that allowed mothers to hold their babies next to their skin cut 10 days from the hospitalization time for premature infants, slashed morbidity rates, and reduced the need for babies to use a ventilator.
According to author Yuhgo Yamaguchi, “When many people think of hospital design and its impact, they often believe it’s a superficial, touchy-feely, and subjective endeavor. But there are numerous examples throughout the world that have demonstrated, with clinical data, that design has a measurable, desirable impact on clinical outcomes and cost.
Source: “Better Healing From Better Hospital Design” by Yuhgo Yamaguchi in the Harvard Business Review, October 5, 2015.