Hospitals: Design for a Healing State of Mind!
Monday, January 12th, 2009
Had an interesting conversation with a healthcare executive recently. She is working hard to build a new hospital. The design team is arguing about seemingly small things like how to decorate the lobby. Should we make it look like a library, should there be a piano, large fish tank, silent waterfall and so on? All of this cost money and in a time of great concern over the cost of healthcare does it even make sense?
This is a good question to ask especially as health systems around the US are trying to build facilities that are more like five-star hotels or luxury malls than traditional hospitals.
We did some design thinking to explore the issue. Specifically I asked questions about the four levels of functional impact every artifact, including a new hospital, has including:
1. Utility or core functionality (engineering)
2. Usability or how easy the artifact is to use (human factors)
3. Look-and-feel or how the artifact impacts the five senses (sensorial design)
4. Think-and-Feel or how the artifact impacts the thoughts, emotions and frame of mind (cognitive design).
A shortened and somewhat fictionalized synopsis of the conversation follows. It holds a couple of lessons for any complex design project.
