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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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The Work of Adult and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Nurses

Author(s): Douglas,. S., Cartmill, T., Brown, R., Hoonakker, P., Slagle, J., Van Roy, K. S, Walker, J, M.
Over the years, researchers have employed a variety of methods to describe and quantify nursing work. However, much of this research looked at nursing in general care settings and not at the unique work nurses perform in intensive care units (ICUs). This study uses behavioral task analysis to observe activities performed by adult ICU (AICU) and pediatric ICU (PICU) nurses as well as to compare the time they spent on various tasks across four different ICUs.
Key Point Summary
Added January 2014

Patients’ Interactions in an Intensive Care Unit and Their Memories of Intensive Care: A Mixed Method Study

Author(s): Meriläinen, M, Kyngäs, H, Ala-Kokko, T
The various equipment and devices in the intensive care unit (ICU) make it the most technologically sophisticated environment in any hospital. But, from a patient’s perspective, being connected to various devices; experiencing unsettling noises, smells, lighting, and uncomfortable temperatures; and enduring the perceptions of other patients as care objects can cause both physical and mental stress.
Key Point Summary
Added January 2014

Impact of Music Therapy Interventions (Listening, Composition, Orff-Based) on the Physiological and Psychosocial Behaviors of Hospitalized Children: A Feasibility Study

Author(s): Colwell, C. M., Edwards, R., Hernandez, E., Brees, K.
The hospital experience can impact the physical and mental health of a child. Prior research has shown that music therapy can have a positive effect on mood, anxiety, respiratory distress, and behavioral distress. And although listening to music is the most common form of music therapy, songwriting and physically making music have also been used as a positive coping strategy for children within a hospital environment.
Key Point Summary
Added April 2014

Research note: Physical Activity in Pediatric Healing Gardens

Author(s): Pasha, S., Shepley, M., M.
Research has shown that frequency and duration of garden use within urban and hospital settings can be hindered through barriers such as uncomfortable seating and lack of shade. However, once barriers like these are removed, it is unknown if an increase in frequency and duration of garden use has an impact on the level of physical activity during garden visitation.
Key Point Summary
Added May 2014

Understanding the Role of Hospital Design on the Psychological Trauma of Hospitalization for Children

Author(s): Cartland, J.
The Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago (formerly, Children’s Memorial Hospital) has gone through many transformations since its founding in a small North Side cottage 130 years ago. Lurie Children’s recently executed one of the most significant transformations in its history. It moved into a replacement facility, leaving its historic home in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago and moving near its academic partner, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, in the Streeterville neighborhood.
Key Point Summary
Added June 2014

Post-Occupancy Evaluation of a Transformed Nursing Home: The First Four Green House Settings

Author(s): Cutler, L. J., Kane, R. A.
To study how well the physical environments of four Green Houses® served the residents, staff, and visitors and to develop recommendations for similar small-house nursing home projects. Longitudinal post-occupancy evaluation of four houses using mixed-methods, including behavioral mapping, checklist ratings of individual bedrooms and bathrooms, place-centered time scans, environmental tracers,...
Key Point Summary
Added September 2014

Environmental Affordances: Designing for Family Presence and Involvement in Patient Care

Author(s): Choi, Y.-S., Bosch, S. J
One of the ways that hospitals strive to provide patient-centered care is by altering the physical facility to incorporate larger visitor and family space within patient rooms. It is believed that this space increases comfort and allows family members to spend more time with and better support their loved one in the hospital, impacting patient care.
Key Point Summary
Added September 2014

Design Research and Behavioral Health Facilities

Author(s): Shepley, M. M., Pasha, S.
In the interest of determining the state of knowledge on the relationship between behavioral health and the physical environment, the authors explored the literature on research, guidelines, and funding related to this topic.
Key Point Summary
Added November 2014

Hand hygiene after touching a patient's surroundings: the opportunities most commonly missed

Author(s): FitzGerald, G., Moore, G., Wilson, A. P. R.
When a healthcare worker (HCW) is involved in patient care, there is every possibility of their hands getting contaminated. Unless adequate hand hygiene is carried out between one patient and the next, there is a likelihood of spread of pathogens. Microbes can also be transmitted to different surfaces a HCW may touch.
Key Point Summary
Added November 2014

Antimicrobial activity of copper against organisms in aqueous solution: A case for copper-based water pipelines in hospitals?

Author(s): Cervantes, H. I., Álvarez, J. A., Muñoz, J. M., Arreguín, V., Mosqueda, J. L., Macías, A. E.
Poor quality of water is significantly associated, according to the authors, with healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), and this is particularly problematic in developing countries. Literature indicates that patients in developing countries often become infected with waterborne diseases during hospital stays, and ensuing fatalities are not uncommon.
Key Point Summary
Added November 2014

Assessing the optimal location for alcohol-based hand rub dispensers in a patient room in an intensive care unit

Author(s): Boog, M. C., Erasmus, V., de Graaf, J. M., van Beeck, E. A. H. E., Melles, M, van Beeck, E. F.
The authors allude to literature which says that compliance of hand hygiene (which is crucial to reducing the spread of infectious disease) is low among healthcare workers (HCWs). Literature also shows that alcohol-based hand rubs (ABHRs) improve hand-hygiene compliance by HCWs, which in turn is impacted by location, access to, and visibility of the ABHR dispenser.
Key Point Summary
Added November 2014

Translating Quality Care Factors to Quality Space: Design Criteria for Outpatient Facility

Author(s): Samah, Z. A., Ibrahim, N., Amir, J. S.
Added December 2014

Including patients, staff and visitors in the design of the psychiatric milieu

Author(s): Perkins, N. H.
Most research addressing environmental design for healthcare facilities focuses on expert-determined and expert-driven outcomes. Little attention has been given to the perspectives offered by those who are ultimately using the facilities, namely the patients, staff, and visitors. Participatory design and planning (PDP) is a method that takes these non-expert opinions into consideration while operating under three assumptions. First, healthcare facilities are complex environments that require a team of people who can understand and maintain structured information necessary for optimum design.
Key Point Summary
Added December 2014

Patient Safety in the Cardiac Operating Room: Human Factors and Teamwork A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association

Author(s): Wahr, J. A., Prager, R. L., Abernathy, J. H., Martinez, E. A., Salas, E., Seifert, P. C., Groom, R. C., Spiess, B. D., Searles, B. E., Sundt, T. M., Sanchez, J. A., Shappell, S. A., Culig, M. H., Lazzara, E. H., Fitzgerald, D. C., Thourani, V. H., Eghtesady, P., Ikonomidis, J. S., England, M. R., Sellke, F. W., Nussmeier, N. A.
The cardiac surgical operating room is a complex environment, where patient lives are saved or considerably improved with the help of sophisticated equipment and skilled personnel. Although outcomes are improving, adverse events still occur, many of which are preventable. This statement is the result of a review of literature that presented evidence on patient safety and interventions that worked in enhancing patient safety in the cardiac OR.
Key Point Summary
Added March 2015

Impact of the physical environment of psychiatric wards on the use of seclusion

Author(s): van der Schaaf, P. S., Dusseldorp, E., Keuning, F. M., Janssen, W. A., Noorthoorn, E. O.
Disturbed behavior and patient aggression within psychiatric wards can threaten both patient and staff safety. To manage these patients, psychiatric wards often will use coercive measures such as solitary confinement. Patient aggression arises from a complex interaction between patient characteristics, staff characteristics, and the characteristics of the physical environment of the psychiatric ward itself. Most studies have focused on the dynamics between patient and staff characteristics; little research has been done to investigate how the physical environment of psychiatric wards might influence patient aggression and subsequently the use of coercive measures.
Key Point Summary
Added October 2015

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

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

A framework for understanding grocery purchasing in a low-income urban environment

Author(s): Zachary, D., Palmer, A., Beckham, S., Surkan, P.
Added August 2016

Healing Gardens and Cognitive Behavioral Units in the Management of Alzheimer's Disease Patients: The Nancy Experience

Author(s): Jonveaux, T. R., Batt, Martine, Fescharek, R., Benetos, A., Trognon, A., Bah Chuzeville, S., Pop, A., Jacob, C., Yzoard, M., Demarche, L., Soulon, L., Malerba, G., Bouvel, B.
Added July 2018

Does the redesign of a psychiatric inpatient unit change the treatment process and outcomes?

Author(s): Urbanoski, K. A., Mulsant, B. H., Novotna, G., Ehtesham, S., Rush, B. R.
The overall “atmosphere” of a psychiatric treatment facility could be defined through the availability of patient autonomy and support from peers, the presence of aggressive behavior within the ward, and the general sense of ward organization and rule enforcement.
Key Point Summary
Added August 2018