New Hospital Designs for Better Quality of Care, Stay
The Wall Street Journal published a long, interesting article on the relationship between hospital design and patient outcomes. It details what was done at SynergyHealth’s 80-bed St. Joseph’s Community Hospital in West Bend, WI, a flagship for this architectural approach focused on enabling better healthcare. The new hospital was built both with the involvement of nurses and doctors and with an eye on learnings from other industries such as aerospace or automotive. St. Joseph started with a conference on patient safety in April 2002 and defined recommendations for the future. Since St. Joseph was to relocate to a new $55 million facility - which opened in August last year - patient safety became embedded in its design requirements from the ground up. This has translated in a long list of choices, including:
- room standardization to help staff find things and reduce costs.
- Lighting with color temperature close to natural night to facilitate diagnosis of, say, jaundice.
- Window blinds are embedded in windowpanes above which heating vents are placed to reduce germ formation.
- Nonslip floorings and bathrooms located near beds to reduce falling risk.
- Glass-fronted alcoves next to each room let nurses use a computer to order medication and update medical records with the patient in view, to make sure all tasks related to that patient are completed before moving on to someone else.
- Ceilings are covered in sound absorbing tiles to make rooms quieter.
Since it’s been less than a year since the new building opened, only anectodal evidence is available so far, but it seems medication errors, nosocomial infections and injuries from falls are lower than in the former building. Safety-driven principles managed to be part of the construction project while remaining within its original budget.
See also the Sacramento Business Journal from November 2005: Hospital designs aim for safety, care.
May 9, 2006 Related topics: Facilities, Quality, Safety, Errors