Pretty hospitals make for healthier patients

Posted by Paul in consumer medicine, hospital quality on 04 15th, 2008 | no responses

Here’s a no-brainer from the Atlantic: dingy hospitals rooms have a negative impact on patient care.

Over the past decade, most public places have gotten noticeably better looking. We’ve gone from a world in which Starbucks set a cutting-edge standard for mass-market design to a world in which Starbucks establishes the bare minimum. If your establishment can’t come up with an original look, customers expect at least some sleek wood fixtures, nicely upholstered chairs, and faux–Murano glass pendant lights.

I was just listening to a web video promo about the Amazon.com Kindle where said author (Michael Lewis) talked about how great it was to pass the hour long wait with his new digital reader.  Because, you know, the magazines are 6 months-old Sports Illustrateds.

“Except for the computers you see, it’s like a 1980s hospital,” says Jain Malkin, a San Diego–based interior designer and the author of several reference books on health-care design. “The place where patients spend their time 24/7 is treated as if it’s back-of-the-house.”

What the article didn’t go on to do was prescribe an solution: bulldoze old hospitals?  Make medical treatment virtual?  Open retail clinics?