The importance of effective building design — especially important in hospitals — is often overlooked, according to an article on The Conversation website.
A recent study of the design of operating rooms reveals how research-informed design can improve safety and performance.
Because hospitals are expensive to build and to operate, it is crucial to use the abundant, available empirical evidence to guide design, the article said.
In 1984, for instance, professor Roger Ulrich published a paper in which he described how found that randomly assigned surgery patients with a window view of trees used less pain medication and were discharged earlier, among other positive results, compared to patients with a brick wall window view.