Incorporating green spaces into buildings, increasing the amount of sunlight and building large corridors are all ways hospitals can be designed to improve staff wellbeing, The Harvard Business Review reported June 15.
Here are four hospitals that have been designed to help improve wellbeing:
- Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston built its "Lunder" building, offering large stairwells flooded with natural light and quiet patient floors, which can improve stress levels for workers by providing a more relaxed atmosphere.
- Atrium Health in Charlotte, N.C. also commissioned a new design for staff work areas that made employees feel safer and more at ease in the workplace as well as increasing opportunities for teamwork and collaboration.
- The recent expansion at Loma Linda University Medical Center in Inland Empire, Calif., had a centralized layout, with the distribution of patient and supply rooms along the wings meaning healthcare workers don't have to travel as far or long when going about their tasks.
- Montage’s Ohana Center in Monterey, Calif., has incorporated nature into the building design, offering patients and workers a respite from the stress of daily tasks, and it lowers arousal fatigue.