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Knowledge Repository

A complete, user-friendly database of healthcare design research references MoreLess about the Knowledge Repository

The Knowledge Repository is a complete, user-friendly database of healthcare design research references that continues to grow with the latest peer-reviewed publications. Start with our Knowledge Repository for all of your searches for articles and research citations on healthcare design topics. Access full texts through the source link, read key point summaries, or watch slidecasts. Expand your search and find project briefs, interviews, and other relevant resources by visiting our Insights & Solutions page.

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Displaying 1 - 20 of 71

Decoding the psychiatric space: Cross country comparison of facilities for mental health service users

Author(s): Chrysikou, E., Savvopoulou, E., Biddulph, J., Jenkin, G.
Added December 2022

The impact of biophilic design in Maggie’s Centres: A meta-synthesis analysis

Author(s): Tekin, B. H., Corcoran, R., Gutiérrez, R. U.
Added July 2022

Fangcang shelter hospitals: A novel concept for responding to public health emergencies

Author(s): Chen, S., Zhang, Z., Yang, J., Wang, J., Zhai, X., Bärnighausen, T., Wang, C.
Added April 2020

Modern forensic psychiatric hospital design: Clinical, legal and structural aspects

Author(s): Seppänen, A., Törmänen, I., Shaw, C., Kennedy, H.
Added October 2018

Airflow patterns through single hinged and sliding doors in hospital isolation rooms – Effect of ventilation, flow differential and passage

Author(s): Kalliomäki, p., Saarinen, P., Tang, J. W., Koskela, h.
Patients with highly contagious diseases are often housed in negative pressure isolation rooms. These rooms attempt to reduce cross-infections within the hospital. However, airflows produced by healthcare worker movements and door opening motions pose the risk of spreading pathogen-laden air from negative pressure isolation rooms into other spaces. A significant number of previous studies have examined the impact of single-hinged door-generated airflows, but few have compared hinged doors with sliding doors.
Key Point Summary
Added December 2016

An Assessment of Levels of Safety in Psychiatric Units

Author(s): Bayramzadeh, S.
As mental treatment facilities see increases in the number of patients seeking care, facilities face mounting pressure in their attempts to promote patient well-being and safety. The author suggests that there is a lack of systematic empirical studies that examine how the design of mental healthcare facilities contributes to patient care and safety.
Key Point Summary
Added September 2016

Security Implications of Physical Design Attributes in the Emergency Department

Author(s): Pati, D., Pati, S., Harvey, T. E.
In this paper, the authors consider “security” a subset of “safety,” and note that security is imperative for providing efficient patient care, especially in emergency departments (EDs). Security is defined as the protection of people and property, while safety is defined as the broader concept of delivering patient care.
Key Point Summary
Added September 2016

From the nurses' station to the health team hub: How can design promote interprofessional collaboration?

Author(s): Gum, Lyn Frances, Prideaux, David, Sweet, Linda, Greenhill, Jennene
The nurses’ station serves a diverse array of purposes, one being that it acts as a space for communication and interprofessional collaboration. Previous studies have shown that the design of the nurses’ station alone can impact aspects of patient and staff privacy, walking distance, and access to resources. But no known studies prior to this paper have examined specifically the influence of nurse station design on the frequency and quality of interprofessional practice.
Key Point Summary
Added June 2016

Lost in space: The place of the architectural milieu in the aetiology and treatment of schizophrenia

Author(s): Golembiewski, J.
This article is a theoretical discussion concerning how designed and constructed environments can be significant factors in the psychogenesis of mental illnesses, particularly with non-affective psychoses. The authors believe that the current body of literature is lacking in resources that could help direct design decision-making to positively influence the well-being of mentally ill individuals. Discussing this matter may help identify specific qualities of the built environment that appear to be aetiologically related to psychosis.
Key Point Summary
Added June 2016

Effects of an Assisted Living Facility Specifically Designed for Individuals with Memory Disorders: A Pilot Study

Author(s): Springate, B. A., Talwar, A. K., Tremont, G.
A 2007 study estimated that 14% of individuals over the age of 71 have dementia, and many of those individuals require some level of support with daily life. Furthermore, many of these individuals eventually move to assisted living (AL) facilities or nursing homes as they begin to require more assistance. Many people choose AL facilities due to pricing or the desire to be assisted rather than nursed. Previous studies have indicated that the physical environment of nursing homes can influence the overall well-being of residents with dementia. However, relatively few studies have assessed the effects of AL facility environments on the well-being of dementia patients.
Key Point Summary
Added June 2016

A Recovery-Oriented Care Approach: Weighing the Pros and Cons of a Newly Built Mental Health Facility

Author(s): Ahern, C. C., Bieling, P., McKinnon, M. C., McNeely, H. E., Langstaff, K.
An inpatient mental health hospital was renovated with a newly built environment that incorporated patient-centered, clinically informed designs in an attempt to improve overall safety and quality of care. The new designs were considerably expensive and had extensive design implications for other parts of the hospital outside of the mental health facility.
Key Point Summary
Added June 2016

Design in mind: eliciting service user and frontline staff perspectives on psychiatric ward design through participatory methods

Author(s): Csipke, E., Papoulias, C., Vitoratou, S., Williams, P., Rose, D., Wykes, T.
Previous studies have shown repeatedly that the physical design of psychiatric wards has a significant impact on patient recovery and well-being. It has also been found that staff and patients often express conflicting expectations regarding the design of psychiatric wards. Therefore, it is important to better understand different stakeholder perceptions of the same environment so that the most effective design decisions can be made. One possible way of doing this would be using the “SURE model,” which is a participatory method involving collaborations with service users during all stages of the study.
Key Point Summary
Added June 2016

Ebola Holding Units at government hospitals in Sierra Leone: evidence for a flexible and effective model for safe isolation, early treatment initiation, hospital safety and health system functioning

Author(s): Johnson, O., Youkee, D., Brown, C. S., Lado, M., Wurie, A., Bash-Taqi, D., Hall, A., Hanciles, E., Kamara, I., Kamara, C., Kamboz, A., Seedat, A., Thomas, S., Kamara, T. B., Leather, A. J. M., Kargbo, B.
The outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa during 2014-2015 was an unprecedented modern crisis that required novel approaches to outbreak containment and management. In response, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MOHS) and the King’s Sierra Leone Partnership (KSLP) in Freetown, Sierra Leone, worked to develop and implement five new Ebola Holding Units (EHUs) in government hospitals, which successfully isolated 37% of the 3,097 confirmed EVD cases within the country’s Western Urban and Rural district.
Key Point Summary
Added June 2016

Are Split Flow and Provider in Triage Models in the Emergency Department Effective in Reducing Discharge Length of Stay?

Author(s): Pierce, B. A., Gormley, D.
This paper presents a quality improvement (QI) project by comparing the performance of two different emergency departments (EDs). The idea behind the split flow model is to allow for a second flow stream of patients through the ED, parallel to the regular acute/critical care flow stream, that is ultimately intended for patients with problems that are not considered complex. The role of the provider in the triage (PIT) model is to enhance patient triage assessment by providing patients with an upfront evaluation upon entering the ED.
Key Point Summary
Added June 2016

Understanding Green Building Design and Healthcare Outcomes: Evidence-Based Design Analysis of an Oncology Unit

Author(s): Campion, N., Thiel, C. L., Focareta, J., Bilec, M. M.
The United States healthcare industry is a major part of the economy as well as a significant contributor to carbon dioxide emissions and other environmental issues. Green building design (GBD) attempts to offset environmental impacts of buildings, and recently designers have been combining GBD with evidence-based design (EBD) in order to create facilities that positively impact both the external and internal environment.
Key Point Summary
Added June 2016

The effect of hospital layout on caregiver-patient communication patterns

Author(s): Pachilova, R., Sailer, K.
This article suggests that the field of evidence-based design (EBD), which considers information from case evaluations and credible research during design-related decision processes, has only marginally examined hospital layouts and their effects. As a result, this study attempts to build on the tradition of “Space Syntax” research, which is a theory that explores how space controls and generates encounters between inhabitants and visitors of certain spaces and how these two groups engage in communication.
Key Point Summary
Added June 2016

Route complexity and simulated physical ageing negatively influence wayfinding

Author(s): Zijlstra, E., Hagedoorn, M., Krijnen, W. P., van der Schans, C. P., Mobach, M. P.
In this study, “wayfinding” is defined as determining and following a path or route between an origin and a destination. Wayfinding can be particularly difficult in complex and sometimes stressful environments like hospitals, and as hospitals continue to expand to meet increasing healthcare demands, their layouts face the possibility of becoming more difficult to navigate. Wayfinding is particularly difficult for the elderly, who may have memory issues and weakened physical abilities. Support from the environment is necessary to help elderly people function at their best, so it is important to understand what elements of the designed environment either benefit or confuse them.
Key Point Summary
Added May 2016

Meeting the Needs of Visually Impaired People Living in Lifetime Homes

Author(s): Rooney, C., Hadjri, K., Rooney, M., Faith, V., McAllister, K., Craig, C.
Lifetime Homes standards (LTHS) are a group of mandatory public-sector housing design interventions used in the U.K. They attempt to provide a model that ensures adaptable and accessible homes for the entire duration of an occupant’s stay. Changes in one’s physical environment, much like the ones implemented by LTHS, could help reduce the impact of disabilities such as visual impairment, and could help give patients different degrees of communal living with some level of independence.
Key Point Summary
Added May 2016

The Creation of a Biocontainment Unit at a Tertiary Care Hospital: The Johns Hopkins Medicine Experience

Author(s): Garibaldi, B. T., Kelen, G. D., Brower, R. G., Bova, G., Ernst, N., Reimers, M., Langlotz, R., Gimburg, A., Iati, M., Smith, C., MacConnell, S., James, H., Lewin, J. J., Trexler, P., Black, M. A., Lynch, C., Clarke, W., Marzinke, M. A., Sokoll, L. J., Carroll, K. C., Parish, N. M., Dionne, K., Biddison, E. L. D., Gwon, H. S., Sauer, L., Hill, P., Newton, S. M., Garrett, M. R., Miller, R. G., Perl, T. M., Maragakis, L. L.
Prior to the 2014 Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa, the United States had only one to three specialized biocontainment units. Once the EVD crisis began, a group of reputable American healthcare institutions worked together to renovate a deactivated clinical space into a functioning biocontainment unit (BCU).
Key Point Summary
Added April 2016

The Impact of a Flexible Care Area on Throughput Measures in an Academic Emergency Department

Author(s): McGrath, J., LeGare, A., Hermanson, L., Repplinger, M. D.
This paper explores the implementation of a novel strategy which involved the creation of a “flexible care area” (FCA), a space designed for initiating patient evaluations and treatments at the beginning of a patient’s visit.
Key Point Summary
Added December 2015