In the News
Dochitect speaks to about the impact of building design on healing.
Excerpt:
“Changing out lightbulbs in nursing homes can impact fall rates significantly,” said Dr. Diana Anderson, a geriatrician and professor of medicine at Boston University. “Of course, falls are things we don’t want to happen. It causes a lot of economic burden, of injury burden and hospital system use burden.”
Anderson, who’s also a healthcare architect at global solutions firm Jacobs, came up with a term for her expertise in the intersection of medicine and architecture: dochitect.
“It is a term that I created and trademarked, registered as sort of a brand that I think really helps illustrate the fact that these two professions can be integrated,” she said. She strongly believes their integration can help patients significantly. Too much is at stake with the volume of people getting care at a facility like a hospital over the years.
“That’s a pretty strong statement to make, to say that the building you’re in is as powerful to your health as a pill you might take, or a surgical procedure you might have in the hospital,” Anderson said. “But there is evidence to show this is the case.”
She points to research including how close a patient’s room is to a nursing station, color patterns, and even floor lines to help patients with dementia.
Well-being of staff matters, too
The health care model in the U.S. depends a lot on patient satisfaction because it’s a payer model. Anderson’s calling on health systems to care about the design of spaces for staff.
“What we often see in design now is what we call this onstage-offstage model, whereby patients will often get the shiny lobby with the art, the window and the sculpture or fountain and staff will get a lounge at the back of the building without any windows, with barren walls,” she said.
The wellbeing of staff may impact the care and the work they deliver. Until design is made for all of the people inside the walls of a facility, then equity will still be lagging.
“What I think is really neat is that doctors and nurses and other clinical professionals really want to think about design,” Anderson said. “I have people calling me saying, ‘I really, really want a certificate program or a degree because I think it can impact how I deliver care in the operating room, in the clinic space.’”
Health care delivery has no shortage of complex problems. The experts to solve a lot of them are already working at a hospital and she believes having more of them gain expertise in design will yield even better results.
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