Bigger, Safer, More Comfortable
For Release: April 1, 2009
Patients will order meals, review X-rays with their physicians and watch movies—all on flatscreens hung on the walls of their private rooms. They’ll regulate how much sunlight streams into their rooms with individual shade controls. And a family member will be able to spend the night in every room, including intensive care.
Dr. Rita Ghatak, Ph.D., Director of Aging
Adult Services (r), visits with Los Altos
resident Grace Frank.
That is the potential future for patients receiving care in the new Stanford Hospital, projected to open in 2015-16. These glimpses came during a panel discussion on “Meeting the Healthcare Needs of Older Adults: New Horizons in Hospital Planning and Design,” co-hosted on March 19 by Avenidas, a non-profit agency that serves senior citizens on the Peninsula, and the American Institute of Architects San Francisco and Santa Clara Valley chapters.
The discussion, moderated by Shelley Hébert, Executive Director for Public Affairs at Stanford Hospital & Clinics, was the sixth in a series of public forums presented by the Stanford University Medical Center Renewal Project. Videos of previous sessions, which examined emergency medicine and sustainability in new hospital design and other topics, are available at www.stanfordpackard.org and on DVD from the Stanford Health Library.
Rita Ghatak, PhD, Director of Aging Adult Services at Stanford Medical Center, told the audience of almost 100 that adults are living longer than ever before—but often with multiple medical conditions and complex needs. Citing this “unprecedented demographic shift,” the psychologist and gerontologist said that today’s hospitals “have a huge responsibility to create an infrastructure for aging adults.”
Ghatak, who teaches techniques in long-distance caregiving and dementia management, described how better transitional care between skilled nursing facilities and the home could help the new aging population. She also said that focus groups convened by Stanford Hospital have identified aspects of a care environment that need improvement, including lighting, sound, distances, doorways, waiting areas, room layouts and signage. “I cannot tell you the impact of light and sound,” she said.
Betsy Brawley, IIDA, CID, president of Design Concepts Unlimited, and a specialist in designing interior environments for aging adults, also addressed the needs of today's aging patients. After ticking off a list of age-related challenges that include arthritis, vision and hearing impairment, hypertension, mobility impairment, depression, diabetes and osteoporosis, she spoke about “the things we can do to make hospital environments better.”
In her slide presentation, Brawley demonstrated to the audience how lighting design and contrasting paint colors, for example, could help to keep seniors safer in hospital rooms. She also suggested that patient bathrooms be redesigned with sliding doors, lighting over the toilet and basin, fold-down grab bars, showers without a threshold, and electronic dimmers.
“There are risk factors we face every day,” Brawley said. “But we can modify the environment.”
George Tingwald, MD, AIA, Director of Medical Planning for the hospital renewal project, also discussed the needs of the so-called younger aging patient. At a time when hospital construction is booming nationwide, Tingwald said hospitals increasingly must provide services for patients in the 70s, 80s or 90s.
Tingwald said that Stanford Hospital, built during the Eisenhower era, also is becoming a geriatric patient. Patient and operating rooms are too small for the services hospitals provide today, he said, “and we now have evidence that the environment has a huge impact on patient outcomes.”
With almost one million square feet to house the equivalent of three acres devoted to interventional services, an enlarged emergency department and an overall capacity of 600 beds, the design for the new adult hospital will help to meet the needs of an aging population, Tingwald said. The new hospital will also feature the size of single-patient rooms that "has been shown to enhance care," he said. Flooring materials will be chosen to prevent falls. Special cleanable surfaces and hand-washing stations will help to reduce the risk of infections, he added.
About Stanford Hospital & Clinics Stanford Hospital & Clinics is known worldwide for advanced treatment of complex disorders in areas such as cardiac care, cancer treatment, neurosciences, surgery, and organ transplants. Consistently ranked among the top institutions in the U.S. News & World Report annual list of “America’s Best Hospitals,” Stanford Hospital & Clinics is internationally recognized for translating medical breakthroughs into the care of patients. It is part of the Stanford University Medical Center, along with the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. For more information, visit www.stanfordhospital.org.