The Importance of Hospital Design

Earlier this month, James Barone asked why hospitals serve vending machine snacks and unhealthy food. An event in Los Angeles yesterday raised other basic questions about hospitals: Can a shift in thinking about hospital design actually improve health?

The Zócalo Public Square panel discussion focused on how design can promote patient and employee wellness. Mary Dee Hacker, Vice President of Patient Care Services of the Children's Hospital Los Angeles, explained some of the principles behind the design of the new $600 million building. The hospital should no longer be a "dark, scary place," she said. Instead, the new facilities are meant to be a place for healing, with more single-patient rooms and family-friendly spaces. An accessible playground and garden will be prominent to "honor what children do, which is play," Hacker said.

Hospital design to promote wellness, as opposed to just treating disease, is a relatively new concept. Research directly related to health outcomes is not sufficient, the panelists agreed, but social science research and experience with other types of buildings support design choices such as noise-reducing materials, natural light, color and energy-saving options.

James Theimer, principal architect and founder of the Redding firm of Trilogy Architecture explained, however, that patients and staff often have "artificially-low expectations" of what a hospital can be. Of one client in Central California, he said that it was "hard for them to think of a clinic they really liked" simply for lack of examples. Instead, he asked them about other buildings they liked, such schools, libraries or museums, and created a space that served their community with dental services as well as space for community gatherings.

The Center for Health Design has resources and programs that study and advocate for good design -- and how to define what makes good design -- in hospitals. Board member Robin Orr said that the cost of these changes have to be measured over time, in terms of "return on investment" as well as the benefits to the communities these new or renovated facilities serve. The most important question to ask, though, she said, is "Why?" Why shouldn't hospitals be designed differently? Challenge assumptions and entrenched traditions, Orr said.

Find more perspectives on design and well-being as well as a recap of last night's panel at Zócalo Public Square.