The Center for Health Design Blog

December 22nd, 2008

Posted by
Sara Marberry

Happiness is Contagious

Okay, so we’re in the middle of some pretty gloomy times this holiday season. But, here’s one way you can help — be happy!

Here’s why: A 20-year study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation examined the relationship between social networks and happiness. Researchers found that happiness is not the result of a cloistered journey filled with individually tailored self-help techniques. It is a collective phenomenon that spreads through social networks like an emotional contagion.

That means when one person becomes happy, it triggers a chain reaction that benefits not only his/her friends, but also their friend’s friends, and their friend’s friend’s friends. And although all people are roughly separated by six degrees from one another, their ability to influence others appears to only stretch to three degrees. The closer a friend lives, the stronger the emotional feeling spreads.

Obviously, being happy isn’t going to solve the problems in our world right now. But, hey, it might just make someone else feel a little bit better. Happy Holidays, all!

December 10th, 2008

Posted by
Sara Marberry

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Forget EBD — All We Need is “Hello Kitty”

This headline glared out at me from my Google Alerts email this morning: “Hello Kitty-themed maternity hospital opens in Taiwan.” The story, posted on the Brand Republic website, summarizes how the Hau Sheng hospital has put the popular character on every aspect of the hospital, including blankets, cots, and nurses’ uniforms.

One patient commented, “Unlike traditional hospitals that are mostly white, I feel this one is pretty good.” And it probably is better than others she’s visited. But a character motif this is described in the article as a “friendly white cat with her head bigger than her body, small button eyes and nose but no mouth” is a design strategy that cannot stand alone in reducing stress for patients and staff.

Most likely, the hospital administrators didn’t intend it that way. Chances are they are not familiar with the latest evidence-based design research, which further reinforces that while progress is being made, there is still much work to be done.

Children’s hospital design 10-15 years ago did mostly focus on themed elements that would engage kids and relieve stress. Bright colors, fanciful shapes, and animal motifs were the norm. I often thought what it would be like for staff to work in such overstimulated environments. Today, I still wonder, do they really want to see “Hello Kitty” nonstop for a 12 hour shift?

October 22nd, 2008

Posted by
Sara Marberry

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Happy 30th Anniversary, Planetree!

This week at its annual conference in Chicago, Planetree is celebrating its 30th anniversary. A nonprofit organization whose vision is to “promote the development implementation of innovative models of healthcare that focus on healing and nurturing body, mind, and spirit,” Planetree was one of the early advocates of patient centered care in healing environments and has been an inspiration for The Center for Health Design’s work for the past 20 years.

Planetree was founded by a woman named Angelica Theiriot (above) who had been a patient in a hospital. Her revelation is described on the Planetree website like this:

As Angelica Thieriot battled a rare viral infection, she sat staring at the cold, blank walls of her hospital room. Nurses hurried in and out without regard to Angelica as an individual, leaving her to spend hours feeling lonely and afraid. She was disheartened to find that this lack of personalized care threatened to overshadow the benefits of the hospital’s high-tech environment.

Angelica’s experiences led her to envision a different type of hospital where patients could receive care in a truly healing environment that would also provide them with access to the information needed to become active participants in their own care and wellbeing.

In 1978, Angelica founded Planetree, taking the name from the roots of modern Western medicine — the tree that Hippocrates sat under as he taught some of the earliest medical students in ancient Greece.

Today, Planetree continues to be rooted in the experiences of the patient, working with more than 100 hospitals, long-term care facilities, rehabilitation centers, and psychiatric facilities in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

Planetree’s holistic approach to care has many synergies with The Center for Health Design’s work to link outcomes to the design of the built environment. From the very beginning, interior design and architecture were one of the 10 components in Planetree’s acute care model. The others are: human interaction; family, friends and social support; information and education; nutritional and nurturing aspects of food; arts and entertainment; spirituality; human touch; complementary therapies; and healthy communities.

Generally accepted design elements on patient units, such as nurse stations without barriers, storage space for equipment, learning/library spaces, etc., came out of the Planetree model units that were designed in the 1980s. We also owe the focus on family spaces and amenities to Planetree. And much more. I salute the vision of Planetree’s founders and those who continue to carry out the work today and share in the celebration of 30 wonderful years.

October 7th, 2008

Posted by
Sara Marberry

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Way to Go Massachusetts

On September 24, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health approved new guidelines requiring healthcare providers who are building new or renovated facilities to use the Green Guide for Health Care.

Hospitals and extended care providers who are applying for a Determination of Need must get at least 50% of the possible green building points in the Green Guide or the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) - Health Care.

This is really big news for the green healthcare movement and those who have advocated for it for so many years — organizations like Health Care Without Harm, Practice Greenhealth, Healthy Building Network, and The Center for Health Design. Even though it makes sense to go green for so many reasons, often it takes regulation to “force” organizations to do the right thing.

Hopefully, other states will follow Massachusetts’ lead and make this a nationwide policy so that one day we’ll never remember a time when healthcare facilities were not environmentally responsible.

Read issue papers published by The Center for Health Design and Health Care Without Harm on environmental leadership for healthier patients, families, and communities.

October 1st, 2008

Posted by
Sara Marberry

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Beware of Sound Bites

I was watching CNN yesterday morning while working out and there was a segment called “Fact Check” in which reporters investigate whether something one of the presidential candidates said about the other or about a policy issue was true, false, or misleading. In this, case it was McCain saying that Obama was proposing $860 billion in new spending — which, in fact was misleading. Obama is proposing new spending — but also cuts — so the figure is much lower and in line with what McCain is proposing.

It made me recall a conversation I had last week with Sheila Cahnman, Group Vice President at the architectural firm HOK in Chicago. We were talking about some of the misleading information that is currently out there about evidence-based design (see a recent blog post on this). She shared with me that one of her clients had told her during planning for a project that patient room sizes had to be a certain square foot because the Advisory Board had said so.

Now, I know that the Advisory Board has some really good information for its members. But it is certainly not an expert in healthcare facility design, and, as Sheila pointed out, every project has different needs and all the issues should be carefully explored before making a decision. An evidence-based design process would include exploring all the research data to support that decision as well.

So, beware of sound bites. Just because someone says something, it doesn’t mean that it is true. You still need to do your homework and make an informed decision. I recommend this for both politics and building design!