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Hospital Design Linked to Patient and Staff Outcomes

Research teams from Texas A&M University and Georgia Tech found more than 600 studies that establish how hospital design can impact clinical outcomes.

The team discovered a growing body of literature that concludes that the conventional ways that hospitals are designed contribute to stress and danger, and that this level of risk and stress is unnecessary.

Improved physical setting can be an important tool in making hospitals safer, more healing and better places to work.

The link of physical environment to patient and staff outcomes fell into four areas: stress and fatigue reduction among staff and increased effectiveness in delivering care; improved patient safety; reduced stress and improved outcomes; and improved overall health care quality.

Many of the conclusions reached by the study teams will seem obvious to most health care workers, including:

  • Reducing staff stress by ergonomic interventions as well as careful consideration of other issues such as air quality, noise and light can have a significant impact on staff health.
  • Time saved walking (by health care workers) was translated into more time spent on patient care activities and interaction with family members.
  • Workplace design that reflects a closer alignment of work pattern and the physical setting — for instance, the redesign of a pharmacy layout — has been shown to improve work flow and reduce waiting times as well as increase patient satisfaction with the service.
  • Environmental factors such as lighting levels and auditory or visual distractions, impact staff effectiveness while performing critical tasks such as dispensing medical prescriptions.
  • Hospital-acquired infection rates are lower when there is good air quality and patients are in single-bed rather than multi-bed rooms.

The lengthy report, entitled "The Role of the Physical Environment in the Hospital of the 21st Century" is available at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Web. Once there, click on "Nursing."

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