Healthcare Architecture

Humanization And Quality Of Hospital Environments

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The trends in relation to the planning, design and equipment of the entities that offer health services at this time focus on several aspects to be able to cover the different variables that protect the needs of the moment.

Current trends should be based on at least 8 topics:

  1. Creation of curative environments
  2. Evidence-based design
  3. Construction sustainability
  4. Quality certifications
  5. Patient safety
  6. Infection control
  7. Incorporation of technologies
  8. Communication

The creation of healing environments refers to the interaction of the five senses with the environment. Senses that allow knowing and enjoying, therefore they are potential to heal, work, feel pleasure and communicate.

Several authors highlight the importance of architectural design, natural light, exterior views, privacy, lighting control, colours, cleanliness, climate, sounds (noises), accessibility and ease of communication, clear signage, the construction materials, finishes and furniture are essential to achieve a welcoming and pleasant environment for patients and healthcare personnel.

A very expensive hospital building does not necessarily mean that it is of good quality, it can have many undesirable characteristics such as improper operation of the proximity relationships between departments, very small spaces, insufficient sound insulation between the offices, etc.

DESIGN PRINCIPLES

In the design of hospital environments, in addition to meeting the spatial and functional requirements, it is important to consider some basic criteria that contribute to the humanization of these environments, such as security and privacy. And this is why, it is of utmost important to contact healthcare architecture firms in India before building your medical center or hospital.

Safety: The physical environment should try to safeguard the personal sensitivity and human dignity of patients and their families, try to lessen their anxieties and concerns, especially in those cases where patients and their families are going through difficult times, such as: waiting for the results of a surgery, an emergency, intensive therapy, or a crucial diagnosis.

This can be considered when selecting finishes, taking into account that there is no need to create all aseptic environments giving priority to maintenance, reflective surfaces are not desirable.

Security can be provided by providing a warm non-institutional environment, in order to reduce fear, and increase the confidence and self-esteem of the users.

Privacy: it is a primary consideration in the design of environments conducive to the practice of Medicine. This sensation is crucial for patients receiving a certain type of treatment, such as cancer patients, which frequently manifest feelings of depression, anxiety, fear of being discriminated against, rejection, etc.

The physical environment and the size of the spaces should provide adequate levels of privacy. While waiting in critical areas, personalized spaces are necessary where families can wait together with a minimum of contact with other patients, but it is also convenient to have spaces that suggest a certain sociability and stimulate personal contact since some patients and families feel considerable support by sharing your concerns with others who are experiencing the same situation.

According to hospital project consultants in India, in the internal areas of the emergency or first aid department, it is convenient to visually and acoustically separate the pediatrics areas from those for adults, women from men, critical patients from chronic patients, in order to lessen the impressions that may psychologically disturb the patients and their families, and prevent their recovery, reassurance and progress.

A Measure Of Health Care Quality: Patient Satisfaction

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Personality characteristics of healthcare personnel, courtesy, affection, interest and understanding, professional attitudes, ways of presenting their knowledge and skills, especially the patient-nurse relationship plays an important role in patient satisfaction.

In the literature, the most important factor affecting patient satisfaction is communication and adequate information to the patient.

Because the ability of health care providers to communicate with patients plays a major role in making patients feel valued or worthless. While patient-centred and individualized care makes the patient feel valuable, it also creates a relationship of trust between people.

Also, feeling valued as an individual is in a sense related to being adequately informed. In many cases, health personnel who determine the needs of individuals and provide information about these needs make patients feel valuable.

Improving nursing services is important in order to increase patient satisfaction in the health sector. Patients’ satisfaction with nursing care during their hospital stay is the most important factor affecting their satisfaction with all hospital services.

It is stated that nursing service is a very important factor in patients’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction with their hospital experiences, and therefore, the interactions and behaviours of nursing staff with patients are the main factors in patient satisfaction.

The reasons why nursing services are important in patient satisfaction

In hospitals, personnel at all levels of the hospital determine the quality of patient care, together with physical tools and equipment.

Hospitals established to provide patient care services have to use their existing resources such as personnel, tools and equipment efficiently in order to achieve their goals. Staff is an important tool for a hospital that carries out its services in a labour-intensive way to achieve its goals.

The efficiency and productivity level of the hospital is directly related to the staff’s qualifications such as interest, effort, diligence and competence.

The management and satisfaction of hospital employees producing health-related services, which are the most complex services of today, will require the planned efforts with the management approach, and this can be achieved by opting for hospital management consultancy in India.

The theme of quality in health care accompanied clinics and doctors’ offices for a long time. The goal of a health service is always to avoid or eliminate illnesses or to alleviate symptoms or to make them controllable for as long as possible.

It has to do with the quality of the treatment. The right measure at the right time leads to the perfect result if it is carried out correctly and corresponds to the patient’s goals.

Nurses are always with them to meet the needs of patients and the maintenance and rehabilitation of individuals are among the primary responsibilities of nurses.

The physical or social comfort that hospitals provide can make individuals feel at home and increase their satisfaction. Patients who are adequately informed, valued, and feel at home feel more confident in both the treatment and care they receive and the healthcare team providing this service.

Patient satisfaction is a multidimensional concept that includes the provision of the service, the interaction of the patient and the service providers, the existence of the service, the continuity of the service, the competence of the service providers and communication features.

Therefore, patient satisfaction is regarded as a result of health services and generally as an indicator of quality of care, and this is why, we suggest you to turn to healthcare consultancy in India.

Healthcare Architecture: Why Is It Important?

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It is best to assess the impact of architecture in hospitals and clinics – places where people come in need because they feel unwell. Not a single person wants to break away from everyday life of his own free will and imprison himself within four walls, therefore the task of specialists is to create conditions under which the space around will not “finish off” a person.

The presence of loved ones near the patient reduces stress- this should not be forgotten when designing medical centers.

The architecture of health unites buildings for medical, rehabilitation, health institutions, in which a special architectural environment is created that contributes with all its components (modern medical technologies and engineering systems, the set and arrangement of premises and services, interiors) to a full-fledged healing process.

Health architecture is the art of unraveling many technological flows and, as a result, creating a high-tech, comfortable and at the same time beautiful space for both patients and staff.

Since healthcare facilities are among the most complex type of public buildings, saturated with technological and engineering equipment, and the implementation of each section has specific features that employees of ordinary design organizations are not familiar with, it is best to entrust the design of such facilities to healthcare architecture firms in India.

Each type of healthcare facility requires knowledge in a wide variety of areas of activity and the corresponding design experience. Unfortunately, insufficient attention is paid to the ideology of designing healthcare facilities.

Indeed, the risk of nosocomial infection and the ability to comply with the standards of medical care largely depend on the condition of the buildings and a competent design solution.

How can the standards be met if a building for a certain purpose does not have the necessary set of premises and if the existing premises do not allow placing the necessary equipment in them and the corresponding engineering networks are not connected to them?

The design problems of modern healthcare facilities are largely due to the lack of a regulatory framework.

New organizational forms have led to the fact that, for example, in the structure of obstetric care institutions there is no division into physiological and observational departments.

Planning solutions ensure communication of family members as during childbirth, and in subsequent periods of stay in the obstetric care facility (fathers are admitted to individual birth wards, mothers lie with their children, and so on), which has a beneficial effect on the condition of newborns and women in labor.

Modern ventilation systems provide air change in “clean” rooms at such a speed that there is no need to duplicate rooms and allocate septic and aseptic operating units, etc.

The construction of a medical center is expensive, and it is a pity if these funds get wasted and the wrong thing is built. The question of what to design should be decided within the framework of pre-design development with the help of hospital planners in India.