By Healthcare Facilities Today

In her blog on the Healthcare Design website, seine editor Anne DiNardo wrote about a PBS documentary "The Waiting Room," that offered a 24-hour window into the ER waiting room at Highland Hospital in Oakland, Calif. 

The  film is a sobering view of the challenges emergency providers face today, DiNardo wrote, and from a design perspective, "I couldn’t help but watch this documentary and wonder how design might help ease any of these situations and struggles. The waiting room’s basic layout of rows of chairs serves its purpose but it leaves much to be desired. Patients are seen reaching across aisleways to hold hands in prayer, there’s little space for private cell phone conversations, and the buzz of noise can get pretty loud at times."

This hospital stands in stark contrast to some of the amenity-rich projects we’ve seen lately, but surely there’s a middle ground, especially with the growing acknowledgement of the benefits of artwork, natural daylight, furniture, and other design elements to improve patient experiences and outcomes, wrote DiNardo, who will be  exploring the topic of waiting room design for a trend report in Healthcare Design magazine. 

Read the blog.