Patient safety and comfort during inpatient stays are challenges every facility faces. Every year, doctors and hospital staff fight a never-ending battle against patient falls, infections and other hazards in the hospital, making this issue a top concern for facilities and CEOs. While care providers are doing their part to provide quality treatment to patients, a vital component to patient safety lies in facility design. Everything from the layout of a patient room to the furniture used to the art on the walls plays a role in protecting patients and keeping them happy during their stay.

Three Major Patient Concerns 

There are three major concerns facilities have when it comes to patient safety and wellness:

1. Patient falls (these number in the hundreds of thousands every year, with up to 50% of them resulting in injury and prolonged stays).
2. Infections (resulting in approximately 1.7 millions cases and 99,000 deaths per year according to the National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance).
3. Emotional wellness, which is deeply tied to helping patients relax and recover as well as their overall satisfaction with their stay at a facility.

Better Design = Fewer Falls

Fall prevention has become a major concern for facilities, and designers are creating patient rooms based on the needs of patients who have impaired memory or muscle weakness, use a cane or walker, or are taking medications that make them more prone to falls. Designers are approaching room design and the placement of furniture and amenities from the angle of keeping patients in their beds. The key to fall prevention is to limit the amount of times a patient gets out of bed unassisted, which necessitates placing everything a patient needs, from the TV remote to light controls to their personal belongings, within reach of their bed.

Another tactic is to limit the amount of time patients are left alone. As hospitals shift from multi-bed layouts to single occupancy rooms, this leaves more space for family and friends to stay comfortably and for longer periods of time. Falls are less likely to occur when patients have company.

Finally, communication is a major factor in preventing falls. Care providers, visitors (and even patients) need to be educated on how likely a patient is of falling. Using patient room whiteboards allows care teams to note whether patients are at risk of falling — they often use color codes to note fall risk. Facility designers recognize the need for effective communication in the hospital setting and are actively choosing tools that help facilitate the communication process. Whiteboards are one of the most effective tools they can place in any patient room.

Better Design = Fewer Infections 

All patients are at risk of acquiring infections during their stay, and hospital staff can only do so much to prevent the spread of these infections throughout a facility. Effective design can fill the gaps in preventing infections by isolating and making bacteria easier to eliminate. Single occupancy rooms have fixed many of these issues, but bacteria can easily spread when people enter and exit rooms. Effective room design encourages the washing and disinfecting of hands by making sinks and hand sanitizer readily available at the entrance of every room in a facility.

From a structural standpoint, designers and architects are looking to standardize room layouts in order to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of cleaning staff. Patient rooms are far easier to clean when they all have the same layout and are designed a way that makes them easier to clean (i.e. keeping room shapes simple and free of too many corners and nooks). Ventilation and filtration systems are also being installed in order to better control airflow between rooms. This helps prevent infections from spreading through ducts, which are very hard for cleaning crews to reach and disinfect.

Better Design = Better Wellness 

While not a physical danger to patients, emotional wellness is still an issue for patients and providers during prolonged stays. When patients, particularly the elderly, are stressed and unhappy during inpatient stays, they are more likely to recover slower and stay in facilities longer. Designers are tackling these issues by making hospitals more relaxing and better places for patients to stay by adding:

• More natural lighting for rooms
• More common areas for patients to interact with one another
• Colorful murals and thought-provoking pieces of art
• Comfortable seating outside of patient rooms
• More entertainment options
• Communication tools (like custom whiteboards)

Better facility design can keep patients safer, happier, and healthier. Hospitals have always been on the cutting edge of technology, and many are well on their way to also becoming some of the most well-designed, creative facilities in the world. This is all thanks to new ideas and advances in facility design. While earlier hospitals were strictly focused on treating patients, the modern hospital is well on its way to becoming one of the safest and most comfortable places in the world.

How VividBoard Plays its Part

At VividBoard, we are working with hospitals to foster healthy communication with patients to make them more informed on their care and comfortable during their stay. Our custom whiteboards are a part of the “better patient room design” that is making its way into hospitals across the country. Learn more about our whiteboards for healthcare facilities.