Since 2008, our Research Coalition has been supporting cutting-edge research in the field of evidence-based design for healthcare through requests for proposals. This year, the Research Coalition presents a "New Investigator Award" to encourage and support the research efforts of emerging research professionals.
Download the complete RFP Guidelines >
2011 NEW INVESTIGATOR AWARD
Objective
The objective of the New Investigator Award, supported by The Center for Health Design (CHD) Research Coalition, is to recognize emerging leaders in the field of healthcare facility design research. The award is open to graduate students, and other recent research degree recipients with demonstrated potential to conduct and disseminate research that examines the role of environmental design that supports therapeutic, safe, efficient, and effective healthcare settings. The goal of the award is to support new researchers whose future careers are likely to contribute to the continued development of the field of evidence-based design (EBD).
AREAS OF FOCUS
The award seeks to support researchers in the early phases of their careers whose research addresses:
- Increased patient safety through environmental design;
- Increased patient satisfaction and quality of care through environmental design; and,
- Increased worker safety and effectiveness through environmental design.
AWARD
The Center for Health Design awards $3,000 to the individual receiving the first place award. Three honorable mention awards of $1,000 each were also be given. Awardees will be designated as New Investigators, and be provided a senior researcher mentor for one year. One member of the fellows group will be selected to be a representative on the CHD Research Coalition.
2011 NEW INVESTIGATORS:
Rana Sagha Zadeh, LEED AP, EDAC
Texas A&M University
Project: The Role of the Physical Environment in Nursing Unit Efficiency and Safety: The Impact of Windows and Daylight on Staff Mood, Satisfaction, Alertness, and Medical Errors
Summary
One of the most critical challenges in healthcare today is increasing staff effectiveness and thereby increasing patient safety. Increased patient safety is facilitated through more than solely perfected medical practices (Shojania, Duncan, & McDonald, 2001). There is a growing body of evidence that links quality and safety outcomes to the physical environment (AHRQ, 2007). However, numerous major research areas require further investigation; one of these areas in healthcare is lighting (Jha, Duncan, and Bates, AHRQ, 2001; Hickam, Severance, and Feldstein, 2003; Ulrich et al, 2004; Joseph, 2006; Joseph and Rashid, 2007).
The physiological, psychological, and behavioral effects of lighting, with the characteristics of natural light, on humans have been investigated in the fields of sleep science, human biology, psychology, and epidemiology. These studies indicate that neurohormonal mechanisms regulated by the appropriate environmental lighting can result in elevated mood, arousal, and alertness, leading to increased productivity and reduced cognitive impairment. However, the effect of daylight, and the presence of windows on healthcare employees’ health and performance, has not been adequately studied.
The present study was designed to investigate the effects of windows and daylight on healthcare employees’ physical and mental states as evidenced by satisfaction, mood, alertness/sleepiness, and medical errors. Multiple methods were used to investigate these factors from both occupancy and sustainability perspectives: Phase I) 208 staff members completed the study surveys in three facilities, and 32 participated in one-on-one interviews. Phase II) 224 hours of behavioral mapping on work- related and subsidiary behavior was recorded; 140 biological measurements were completed on 14 volunteer participants in a quasi-experimental setting, with careful control for personal, organizational, and environmental variables. Additionally, from the sustainability point of view, computer simulation methods were used to analyze the energy effects of windows and daylight. Phase III) In the final phase, possible associations of the physiological and psychological effects of windows (and daylight) with medical errors will be evaluated (to be completed in December 2011). The subsequent effects of windows and daylight on costs will be described from a financial viewpoint using engineering economy techniques.
Hyun-Bo Seo, Ph.D.
Georgia Institute of Technology
Project: Role of the Physical Environment in Interruptions during Medication Administration
Summary
Many dangerous or tragic events such as medical errors and airplane crashes are often the result of human errors, and these errors are often the result of a professional worker being interrupted during a critical task. Although their impact can be serious, the ways that interruptions are affected by the physical environment have rarely been examined in the study of health care, human factors, and design. This study investigates how the physical environment helps manage the interruptions by observing the process of medication administration by nurses in hospital units.
Chia-Hui Wang, M.Arch., LL.M.
Hwa-Hsia Institute of Technology (HHIT)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Project: Impact of Nursing Unit Configurations on Teamwork and Collaboration – An Example of Centralized versus Hybrid Nurses’ Stations
Summary
Nursing unit is one of the most important spaces in hospitals. Within a nursing unit, nurses’ station is an imperative space in support of staff’s practice. Appropriate design of nurses’ station should be able to restructure the practice of healthcare staff and fulfill the needs of patient care (Bromberg et al., 2006; Greenberg, 2000; Steelcase, 2005).
This study will be carried out in 2 hospitals in Taiwan, one 900-bed hospital equipped with conventional centralized nurses’ stations and the other 500-bed one equipped with innovatively designed decentralized nurses' stations (so-called hybrid nurses’ stations). I will sample 200 nurses, physicians, or other staff who work at the centralized nurses’ stations and 100 nurses, physicians, or other staff who work at the hybrid nurses’ stations to see if there is any difference for their teamwork and collaboration.
The case study hospital equipped with hybrid nurses’ stations opened in 2006. Decentralized nurses’ stations in this hospital were improved from traditional alcove-style designs and integrate advantages of both centralized and de-centralized nurses’ station design. Each nursing unit contains four satellite nurses’ stations, and the layout is the so-called racetrack plan. A large central service core is located in each nursing unit and four satellite nurses’ stations are located at each corner of the service core. Within the service core are storage spaces for supplies and linen, the head nurse’s office, conference room, and duty room. Passageways within the service core make connections among satellite nurse stations easier than that of traditional decentralized nurse station designs.
Teamwork and collaboration among physicians and nurses will be measured by a patient safety questionnaire developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)—Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (Sorra and Nieva, 2002, 2003, 2004).
Sonali Kumar, M.S.
Pennsylvania State University
Project: Experience Based Design Review of Healthcare Facilities Using Interactive Virtual Prototypes
Summary
Healthcare facilities are some of the most difficult building types to design due to the increasing complexity of their building systems as well as the need to address requirements of the many stakeholders. A seminal report on healthcare environments (Ulrich et al. 2004) suggests strong links between the physical environment to the patients and staff in areas of reducing staff stress and fatigue as well as increasing effectiveness in delivering care, improving patient safety, reducing stress, improving health outcomes, and finally improving overall healthcare quality. This has led to the emerging phenomenon of including the end users, such as patients and staff, in the design process to deliver better healthcare facilities.
Healthcare design usually involves various stakeholders with diverse perspectives and expertise where healthcare designers collect Experiential Knowledge from all the major project stakeholders (EDAC Study Guide 2010). The Center for Health Design is using the Evidence-Based Design (EBD) approach to help healthcare and design professionals improve the quality of healthcare through the built environment (Hamilton and Watkins 2009; Stankos 2007). Evidence-based design differs from typical design approach as the emphasis is on using research for design decision-making and evaluation of design innovations. EBD research is committed to improve communication amongst stakeholders and help designers communicate with owners over competing design options and track the design process. Similarly, the Institute for Innovation and Improvement at UK„s National Health Services (NHS) is leveraging Experience-based design to focus on re-designing and improving healthcare services and facilities, based on patient and staff feedback (NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement 2010).
Experience-based design is a user-focused design process with the goal of making user experience accessible to the designers, to allow them to conceive of designing experiences rather than designing services (Bate and Robert 2007). There is widely published research that addresses the subject of end-user influence upon design from different perspectives. Some refer to that perspective as experience-based design (Bate and Robert 2006), participatory design (Luck 2003; Nutter 1995), user-centered design (Norman 1988) and other frequently appearing terms with similar intent. Since users evaluate the built environment differently from designers (Zimmerman and Martin 2001), participatory design approaches attempt to bridge a gap in understanding between users and designers. This research intents to examine how interactive virtual prototypes can be effective tools of design communication to help extract the tacit knowledge of end users such as patients that have unique experiences and perspectives during hospital stays as well as caregivers who carry out specialized tasks in healthcare environments.
