One of the most important considerations for healthcare and medical facilities is design. Recently, emphasis has been placed on modeling the interiors of healthcare facilities to reflect the warmth and care that will be provided by the hospital services. As a general holistic approach to healing, healthcare design has gotten a face lift.
Hospitals were once laden with metal furniture that was uncomfortable and cold. Bright, geometric patterns splashed across the fabric chairs and the overhead fluorescent lighting was enough to make anyone miss home. Now, healthcare facilities are including far different elements of design, focusing on aesthetic appeal and a hotel-like ambiance.
To achieve this hotel ambiance, healthcare facilities are replacing colors like rose, periwinkle and pink with earth and warm tones such as green, ice, burnt orange and mustard. As opposed to the bright geometric textiles, those with sweeping designs are favored. Instead of metal and iron furniture, natural wood and oak materials are preferred. These warm hues, subdued fabric patterns and natural materials are used in healthcare design presently to promote healing and well-being for patients and guests.
In addition to the fabrics changing colors and styles, new knowledge is being utilized by textile manufacturers which weave antimicrobial technology into fabrics, making them bacteria and infection repellent. Considering the CDC estimates that 2.2 million people each year acquire infections from healthcare facilities each year, this new antimicrobial technology is invaluable.
Appropriate lighting is also a consideration in healthcare design, as too much or too little can both be detrimental to healing. Instead of fluorescent overhead lights, table lamps are being implemented to accent the hotel ambiance desired. This type of lighting encourages well being and relaxation, a much needed improvement from too-bright bulbs.
As healthcare and medical design becomes more innovative, expect to see more cutting edge implements such as sleep sofas, lounge chairs with tablets for laptops and wireless internet connections. Healthcare design is veering far away from the harsh, cold atmosphere facilities used to impose and instead favoring the atmosphere of a warm, inviting and comfortable hotel lobby. The art of holistic healing must begin with the environment in which patients, doctors and visitors must spend the majority of their time, making proper healthcare design essential.
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