How Design Supports Patients In Outpatient Facilities
The number of hospital beds is declining, and as inpatient care is being reduced, outpatient facilities are seeing more patients. Outpatient care facilities are less expensive to build and operate than a hospital, so these offices are often now being newly built or expanded, overhauled, and updated to meet the increasing demand for outpatient care, allowing for newer, more patient-centric design. Today we are going to share how design can support patients in these outpatient facilities.
Such construction and fresh design can create improved traffic patterns, and those obsolete clinical areas can be replaced with state-of-the-art services, which is a great support to those who are in the healing process. Filling the lobbies with light are much healthier environments for people who are healing, as well.
Both sanitation - and the appearance of it - are important goals for outpatient facilities. To best support patients in an outpatient facility, the design should include such sanitation elements as:
Appropriate, durable finishes and antimicrobial finishes for each appropriate locations
Proper detailing of such features as door frames, casework, and finish transitions to limit dirt-catching and hard-to-clean crevices and joints
Adequate and appropriately located housekeeping spaces
The facility should also be easy to find, so visibility is another important design element:
The facility needs to be clearly visible from the road approaching the building, with appropriate directional signage from nearby major roads
Easy to recognize, with a welcoming image and clear, properly located directional signage
Easy to enter, with visible, well-identified entrance, and a clear route from parking to entrances
All areas, both inside and out, should be easily accessible to patients with limitations:
The facility must comply with the minimum requirements of the Americans With Disability Act
Be easy to use by the many patients with either temporary or permanent handicaps
Although the needs of outpatients are often less intense than those of hospital inpatients, an individual's visit may still be stressful. Every effort should be made to make the outpatient visit as comfortable and non-threatening as possible. Design can support outpatients here by:
Using non-institutional, familiar materials with cheerful and varied colors and textures. Natural textiles and materials add a home-based aesthetic to spaces that is helpful for health and healing.
Opening up a visual environment with views of landscaped courtyards and other outdoor spaces. Nature-related artwork can be included if an outdoor view is not possible
Using cheerful and varied colors and textures, keeping in mind that some colors can interfere with assessments of patient's skin tones, or can disorient older or impaired patients
Admitting natural light wherever possible and using color-corrected lighting - which closely resembles natural light - in interior spaces
Promoting patient dignity and privacy by visual screening within exam rooms and insulation from noise between exam and consultation rooms
Encouraging patient independence by a patient-orientated layout using clear, uncomplicated patient routes, visual cues, and clear signage
Providing quiet areas for meditation and spiritual renewal, such as quiet rooms, chapels, and gardens
Ensuring all grades are flat enough to allow easy movement, and all sidewalks and corridors are wide enough for two wheelchairs to pass easily
Ensuring entrance areas are designed to accommodate patients with slower adaptation rates to dark and light; marking glass walls and doors easily identifiable
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