Facility Planning Essays

Most residents are away from their families which is different, and most are still adjusting to this change. Scenes that are welcoming to seniors will bring them comfort and warmth. Hermitage Gardens of Oxford is secure for seniors and comfortable to fit their personal living choices. It stood out to me that the interior design in this agency is decorated with warm and welcoming colors. From my standpoint, colors and decorations are important for the residents because the colors are calm and neutral. In this facility, seniors are granted the right to make their own choices of what activities they decide to participate in, foods they eat, and other opportunities. Each resident has their own room and private space that they can decorate and make it as homely as possible. Assisted living agencies are beneficial to those who are independent, but still demand assistance. There is a twenty-four-hour nursing supervision that is provided in this facility which is helpful because some patients require around the clock care. The staff that is employed in Hermitage Gardens of Oxford are social workers, nurses, nurse assistants, and cooks. This agency is funded by

Natural light access is an important factor in housing, psychologically it makes the mind more

Focusing on management and staff providing an informative, safe and comfortable environment for the patients.

The sanatorium provided a diverse offering of programs and resources to patients. Their services included hydrotherapy, electrotherapy, special diets, etc. Their facilities included billiard rooms, reading rooms, music rooms, saloons, etc. Patients could access everything they needed to feel comfortable. The effective layout planning of the building contributed to effective therapy practices. Utilities and services were hidden in the basement, social gathering and dining spaces were on the first floor, and living quarters were on the second and third floors. This separation of spaces due to functions created an intuitive organizational structure. The luxury and layout referenced the style of a grand hotel, but included many quality health related benefits. With an array of functional offerings, each room in the sanatorium was designed to best serve the function of the room. For example, the bedrooms intended for tuberculosis patients had the largest windows to allow the greatest amount of sunlight possible.5

Each story has various departments located on it. On the first floor we have check-in, the waiting area, and various staff offices. The waiting room has a very comfortable feeling, decorated in a way that makes families feel welcome and comfortable. There are complimentary water bottles, juices, and fruit snacks for families, which is another way to make them feel more at ease while waiting on loved ones. The second floor is an intensive care unit for those patients that need more closer monitoring. This floor will have 5- 8 beds. The second floor will also have the diagnostic equipment. Our facility will include an X-Ray room, CT scanner, as well as an MRI machine. The third floor will have 10 beds and a physical therapy area. The third floor will also have the same idea of 10 beds but will also contain the speech pathology area. The fourth floor will focus on an area for the occupational therapists. The fifth and sixth floor will both have 10-12 beds along with offices and areas for the dietician and social workers. The basement of the building will also be

Weill Hall maintains a notable passive design that utilizes daylighting. In analyzing figure 1, the atrium area provides abundant daylighting to light meeting spaces and a significant portion of the hallways. Little artificial lighting is needed for lighting this space. Most lighting found in this space seems to be accent lighting for design purposes. Figure 1 demonstrates passive daylighting design. The break spaces located further down hallways provides ample amount of daylighting that is dispersed throughout the area. As can be noted in figure 2, very little ambient lighting is needed to light hallways.

It is my personal belief that environment plays a considerable role in the patient’s short term and long-term wellbeing. When nurses acknowledge the environment that the patient is interacting in while receiving their care we know this greatly impacts the overall successfulness of the care plan. The patient’s feelings must be

Roger S Ulrich argues the importance of healthcare facilities creating a supportive surrounding that aids in the patient's ability to cope with stress. This can be achieved through providing patients with a sense of control over their environment, access to social support, and access to positive distractions. There is room for improvement in healthcare facilities, and these improvements might not cost too much. Research has shown “that supportive design can be credibly related to dollar savings in healthcare costs. (Ulrich 104). Elements of supportive designs have shown to reduce medications for patients and even reduce the patient's time in the hospital. These cost saving details would come close, if not fully cover, the cost of creating a

The design for the inside of the hospital will have five themes. Every two floors will have the same theme. The themes will include the nightlife floors, the playground floors, the movie floors, the tranquility floors, and the sky floors. The nightlife floors will have rooms designed like a club or a bar. There will be dim lights, fun music, plush beds and couches, and floor length curtains. The playground floors will be for

Time doesn’t seem to pass in the same way in hospitals as it does in other places. Time seems to almost not exist in the same way as it does in other places.” For most people, illness is a source of stress that is elevated when they are place into a healthcare settings (Tuan, 2013). High level of stress, especially when a people hospitalized over time, can have influential psychological and physical effects, which include depression. So solve the problem of stress of patients, exposure to nature and daylight not only helps to calm patients, but can also have positive effects on other health outcomes for the patients who has limited living space in healthcare facilities (Ulrich, 2001). Studies have resulted that daylight can reduce depression and stress among patients with seasonal affective disorder and bipolar depression (Joseph, 2006; Nelson et al., 2005). Furthermore, according to the research, daylight can lessen the mental and physical strain of patients, doctors and nurses (Edwards & Torellini, 2002), and minimize pain, shorten hospital stays (Joseph,

Ulrich’s position on supportive design is that improving the environment of a Hospital/Medical care setting would overall improve the attitudes of patient and staff alike, allowing for a more positive healing experience. His first example of this is fostering control, including privacy. He says that people’s conditions would improve if they have options like: bedside dimmers, privacy in imaging areas, remote control televisions, and headphones to listen to music. People who feel they have some control over their circumstances deal better with stress and have better health than persons who lack a sense of control. His second example of this is to promote social support by adding comfortable waiting areas with movable seating, convenient access to food, telephones, and rest rooms, and convenient overnight accommodations. People who are isolated experience more stress,

The different types of comfort needs are physical, psycho/social/spiritual and environmental. Physical discomfort could be related to anxiety and restlessness. Psycho/social/spiritual discomfort could be related to someone who is elderly and lives alone, or upset that no one is listening to their cultural beliefs. Environmental areas of discomfort could be a room that is too cold, or having a roommate that is noisy. By removing these areas of discomfort the patient will feel more comfortable and willing to cooperate with the nurses and staff.

In 1999, a research team was formed to examine the effect of the built environment on the therapeutic process. An important outcome was the formulation of a new set of guidelines which could be a value to other designing health care settings throughout the NHS. The research project was entitled ‘The architectural healthcare environment and its effect on patient health outcomes’. It was funded by a three-year grant from uk government.

Healing hospital focuses on healing environment by creating peace, relaxation ,reducing stress and anxiety, strengthening moral values and harmony among everything around the patients, which can be done by decorating the patient’s room with healing colors, artwork, adding natural lights, smells and peaceful sounds( Jacobs, n.d). Also it helps to improve the health status of an individual not only focusing on illness, but also emphasizing the physical, mental, social, emotional and spiritual health of an individual( Jacobs, n.d).

In the article ‘Designing for Health: Designers’ Responsibility to Patient Health’, written by Marie Henson, Molly Baker, and Kirsten Keane, Perkins+Will, states that “healthcare designers are fundamentally responsible for providing an enhanced healing environment that focuses on stress reduction, safety, and high-quality indoor spaces for patients, caregivers, and families.” The first step towards reaching this goal is through the material selection that supports healthy environments and allows occupants to heal, recover and prosper in the healthcare environment. (Henson, Baker and Keane 2015)