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Issue Paper #3: 

The Role of the Physical Environment in Promoting Health, Safety, and Effectiveness in the Healthcare Workplace

Anjali Joseph, Ph.D.
The Center for Health Design, November 2006
Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Summary

There is an urgent need to address the inherent problems in the healthcare workplace that lead to staff injuries and hospital-acquired infections, medical errors, operational failures, and wastage. The physical environment plays an important role in improving the health and safety for staff, increasing effectiveness in providing care, reducing errors, and increasing job satisfaction.

These improved outcomes may, in turn, help in reducing staff turnover and increase retention -- two key factors related to providing quality care in hospitals. However, it has become increasingly clear that efforts to improve the physical environment alone are not likely to help an organization achieve its goals without a complementary shift in work culture and work practices.

Proper design of healthcare settings, along with a culture that prioritizes the health and safety of the care team through its policies and values, can reduce the risk of disease and injury to hospital staff and provide the necessary support needed to perform critical tasks.

Also, it is important to identify core systemic and facility design factors that lead to failures and wastage in healthcare, and then develop new solutions (e.g. acuity adaptability, standardized rooms) that address these problems within the context of culture changes and evolving models of care.

The physical environment along with social support, organizational culture, and technology can play an important role in improving health, safety, effectiveness and satisfaction of the healthcare team.

Download PDF of 19-page paper.