The evolution of health care facility design since the 1920s to the current
In the past, the environment in which patients were diagnosed in, treated as well as left to recuperate did not matter to a large extent. Clinicians, for a long time, focused on the quality of healthcare given to their patients, without understanding the dire effects the design of the facility has on the psychology of the patient hence its effects on their progress. Over time, however, there has been major evolvement which saw the incorporation of change in interior design aspects of health facilities as well as the general architectural design of the clinical settings, a factor that has gone a long way in ensuring an environment that contributes to the wellbeing of the patients (Suess & Mody, 2017).
The interior design of health facilities, over time, has changed from bare walls with monotonous colors to one which is varied depending on the needs of the patients in such settings. Besides, there are also additional design features that over time have been incorporated into health care facilities to ensure a “ healing environment” such designs have ensured thermal comfort, Clean air, Noise control as well as Privacy (Reiling, 2006). Today most rooms in which surgeries are carried out in are insulated as well as protected to minimize clinical infections, an aspect that was not evident in the past few years. Besides, the floors as well of the walls of different facilities today are painted in different colors so as to help in eliciting the effects required in different hospital settings. The general architectural design has also changed significantly over time. Today, artistic designs of healthcare compounds as well as the buildings are evident in different settings. In some settings, you could find springs of non-turbulence nature and trees with huge canopies. This brings an effect of calm on the patients.
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Lighting has also contributed to a great evolution in healthcare design (Reay, et al, . 2006). Here, the color of the light used as well as the intensity of illumination is greatly controlled. Initially, white light was, mainly used for visual related purposes only. Today, however color combination plays an important role in healthcare design in ensuring the well-being of the patients, as well as eliciting different emotions.
Types of Health Care Facility Designs
Just like office plans, there are different types of medical design plans. Two common designs. One is the open plan as well as the closed and partitioned design. The open plan design, to a large extent, is presented as a hall, with different beds in one open room (Short, Noakes, Gilkeson, & Fair, 2014). In most circumstances, individuals suffering from similar ailments are placed in the same big rooms with each of them having their bed. The above design is most common in developing countries health facilities where there are generalized rooms that are not partitioned but the big rooms labeled as children’s ward, adult’s ward or something else. On the other hand, partitioned healthcare design, one of the most common designs today have different rooms depending on the needs that in institution takes care of. This design also ensures that the facility has different departments which deal with different medical issues. In most circumstances, the privacy of the patient in such a design is ensured since in most situations patients stay in separate personal rooms, most of which are customized to meet individual patient’s needs.
Ambulatory care facilities, as well as micro hospitals, are other designs that have recently been witnessed to trend (Shulman, Clarke, & Birkin, 2016). Such medical care designs provide outpatient services at convenient places to the patients. Although they are not as elaborate as big hospitals, they are designed in such a way that they are portioned into different rooms in which services are offered to patients. On the other hand, micro hospital designs are also becoming prominent. They can compare to ambulatory services since they are not as expansive as big health care designs. However, they are varied in that they provide more elaborate services such as laboratory services as well as surgery-related operations. They also compare in that all contain different rooms where diagnosis and treatment happens.
References
Reiling, J. (2006). Safe design of healthcare facilities. Quality and Safety in Health Care , 15 (suppl 1), i34-i40.
Reay, S., Collier, G., Kennedy-Good, J., Old, A., Douglas, R., & Bill, A. (2017). Designing the future of healthcare together: prototyping a hospital co-design space. CoDesign , 13 (4), 227-244.
Short, C. A., Noakes, C. J., Gilkeson, C. A., & Fair, A. (2014). Functional recovery of a resilient hospital type. Building Research & Information , 42 (6), 657-684.
Suess, C., & Mody, M. (2017). Hospitality healthscapes: A conjoint analysis approach to understanding patient responses to hotel-like hospital rooms. International Journal of Hospitality Management , 61 , 59-72.
Shulman, H., Clarke, G., & Birkin, M. (2016). 13 Modelling the impact of new community hospitals on access to health care. Applied Spatial Modelling and Planning , 19 , 213.
