The Center for Health Design Blog

October 22nd, 2008

Posted by
Sara Marberry

Happy 30th Anniversary, Planetree!

This week at its annual conference in Chicago, Planetree is celebrating its 30th anniversary. A nonprofit organization whose vision is to “promote the development implementation of innovative models of healthcare that focus on healing and nurturing body, mind, and spirit,” Planetree was one of the early advocates of patient centered care in healing environments and has been an inspiration for The Center for Health Design’s work for the past 20 years.

Planetree was founded by a woman named Angelica Theiriot (above) who had been a patient in a hospital. Her revelation is described on the Planetree website like this:

As Angelica Thieriot battled a rare viral infection, she sat staring at the cold, blank walls of her hospital room. Nurses hurried in and out without regard to Angelica as an individual, leaving her to spend hours feeling lonely and afraid. She was disheartened to find that this lack of personalized care threatened to overshadow the benefits of the hospitalâ€™s high-tech environment.

Angelicaâ€™s experiences led her to envision a different type of hospital where patients could receive care in a truly healing environment that would also provide them with access to the information needed to become active participants in their own care and wellbeing.

In 1978, Angelica founded Planetree, taking the name from the roots of modern Western medicine — the tree that Hippocrates sat under as he taught some of the earliest medical students in ancient Greece.

Today, Planetree continues to be rooted in the experiences of the patient, working with more than 100 hospitals, long-term care facilities, rehabilitation centers, and psychiatric facilities in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

Planetree’s holistic approach to care has many synergies with The Center for Health Design’s work to link outcomes to the design of the built environment. From the very beginning, interior design and architecture were one of the 10 components in Planetree’s acute care model. The others are: human interaction; family, friends and social support; information and education; nutritional and nurturing aspects of food; arts and entertainment; spirituality; human touch; complementary therapies; and healthy communities.

Generally accepted design elements on patient units, such as nurse stations without barriers, storage space for equipment, learning/library spaces, etc., came out of the Planetree model units that were designed in the 1980s. We also owe the focus on family spaces and amenities to Planetree. And much more. I salute the vision of Planetree’s founders and those who continue to carry out the work today and share in the celebration of 30 wonderful years.

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Happy 30th Anniversary, Planetree!

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