Week 4 - Progressive Patient Rooms

Brand identity is how businesses want to be perceived by consumers. This identity is brought together by different aspects, such as brand name, logo, tagline, or even font. Businesses try to shape their identity based on what the company stands for or the product or service that it delivers. One example of a successful business would be Starbucks because they wanted their identity to be “morning coffee” (or anytime coffee, really), and now whenever anyone thinks of Starbucks, they think of quick, good coffee.

This concept is very important in our design of our NEXT clinics. We want to create a brand identity that conveys comfort and well-being, because that is the primary mission of this NEXT clinic. The way in which we focus the design, logo, and so on must clearly convey the desire of NEXT to provide a positive patient experience for everyone who chooses to use them as their primary clinic.

Steelcase’s article “Patient Rooms: A Positive Prognosis” focuses on how patient rooms need to change in order to create a more positive patient, family, and clinician experience. This article took real life situations into account when planning for new and improved patient rooms. These situations include the patient’s desire for complete quiet in her room, the family member’s need to resume “normal life” while staying with a loved one in their room, and the clinician’s need to have easy access to their patients without obstacles in their way. In addition to these experiences, Steelcase discusses other factors that promote the need for better patient rooms: these rooms must be safer and more efficient in order to prevent medical errors and clinician injuries, these rooms must be able to respond to critical care needs due to the increasing complexity of outpatient procedures, and these rooms must simply provide positive outcomes for the patient.

Functional Patient Room

The prevention of medical errors and clinician injuries plays an important role in patient room designs. Did you know that one in 20 patients develops an infection while in the hospital? Not only this, but between 3-20 percent of patients fall at least once during their stay. According to this statistic, that means between 700,000 and 1 million people fall while in the hospital, over a third of the falls considered preventable. Simple steps can be taken to increase safety in clinics: create a clinician zone at the room entrance with a sink and hand cleaner, specify materials and surfaces that are easily cleaned and maintained, and ensure unimpeded access to bathrooms and other necessary areas.

Functional Patient Room

Multi-functional aspects are also important in patient room design. This room can act as anything from a healing space, bedroom, and dining room, to a workspace, to a living space and office. It is important to create a space that is conducive to healing, as well as a space that is convenient for patient, family, and clinician use. Not only does the space have to be multi-functional for convenience, but it also has to be functional for educational interactions. Ways in which to design for education would include placement of furnishings to conduct private gatherings, use of whiteboards and screens to convey vitals and sketches as well as other visual information, and use of easily movable chairs to create an easier connection between patients and clinicians.

Use of Whiteboards in Patient Rooms

Patient rooms need to account for family and patient needs. These spaces need to take care of family members just as much as the patients themselves because while being in a hospital is physically draining for the patient, it is emotionally draining for the family. Methods to take in order to account for family and patient needs include larger, open rooms, temperature controls, or even specialized lighting for various spaces within the room.