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The Pleasant Hill, Calif.-based Center for Health
Design has partnered with 11 hospitals in a research
study to show how innovative design can create
a healing environment that enhances the quality
of patient care, improves financial performance
and helps retain quality staff.
The study, called the Pebble Project, relies
on facts rather than anecdotal reports to promote
the use of the newest design techniques in acute
care settings. Hospitals are required to pay $25,000
for each year of a three-year commitment to take
part in the sharing of data using the center's
proprietary research design methodology technology.
The Pebble Project's initial partner, Childrens
Hospital and Health Center of San Diego, is building
a new $25 million convalescent hospital that will
open in 2004 and is driven by evidence-based design.
Changes made in design as a result of surveys
of parents and staff include redesigning wheelchair
storage to be in patient rooms and adding private
spaces where parents can be with their sick children,
among other things.
Data from Pebble Project partners show generally
higher satisfaction rates by patients and staff,
including nurses.
At the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute
in Detroit, the nurse attrition rate has fallen
from 23 percent to 3.8 percent since the opening
of two newly designed inpatient units in 1999
and 2000. Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo,
Mich., says nursing vacancy rates are half the
state average in a new $181 million downtown facility
designed with airy atriums, large private patient
rooms, gardens, artwork and soothing music.
The Pebble Project gathers data on employee turnover,
outcome measures, length of stay, cost per unit
of service, waiting times, patient satisfaction
levels, violence against staff and organizational
behaviors.
"The purpose of this work is to create a
ripple effect in the health care community by
providing researched and documented examples of
health care facilities whose design has made a
difference in the quality of care and financial
performance of the institution," the research
organization states.
For more information about the center or the
Pebble Project, visit www.healthdesign.org
-John Leighty
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