Insights & Solutions

This tool provides healthcare designers and professionals with ideas on how to improve nurse-patient communication through facility design.

Learn about: elements of the built environment that improve nurse-patient communication; design interventions that could improve nurse-patient communication as found in the literature; how to ask better questions surrounding this critical relationship during your next project.

As part of the communication toolbox, in this issue brief you will learn about elements of the built environment that improve nurse-patient communication, design interventions that could improve nurse-patient communication as found in the literature and how to ask better questions surrounding this critical relationship during your next project.

This list of resources is made of up of articles, books, policies, organizations, and more, related to communication.  Use this list to learn more about this topic.

Learn about: how communication plays a vital role in nurses’ daily responsibilities, which evidence-based design features support effective communication efforts and why improving communication can lead to best outcomes and impact a facility’s bottom line. 

In 2012, The Center for Health Design received a grant from the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) to develop a standard evidence-based tool for inpatient room design. In a three-phase process, this grant will result in design and evaluation tools for inpatient room design in Medical/Surgical Units, Adult Intensive Care Units (ICU) and Labor Delivery Recovery (LDR) and Maternity Units. The first phase of this project has been completed, resulting in a Beta-test, paper-based version of the Inpatient Room Design Checklist and POE tool for the Med/Surg Room which are shared in this presentation.

Overview

Healthcare reform has continually focused on several aspects of the patient experience. The patient experience domain (as measured through HCAHPS — the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) includes three metrics that are used to evaluate patient perceptions about communication: doctor-patient, nurse-patient, and communication surrounding medications.

 

 

The following are compiled from research literature, case studies, interviews, and other materials to provide an overview on the topic of communication.