Similar to many fields in the world that are making technological, social, and modern advances, medical facilities are not being left behind and while changes in the design aesthetics of the facilities may be changing, a lot of these changes are based on ultimate comfort and protection for in and outpatients, their visitors, and professionals alike. Here are the medical facility design trends for 2018;
Homely feel
Hospitals are known to be buildings with bland white walls and not-so-interesting décor. Over the recent years, this trend has been changing slowly but surely and now, hospital waiting rooms are similar to living rooms regarding furniture, color scheme, and even the posters that litter the walls.
This move is aimed at making patients feel better and less ailing by imitating the warm and inviting ‘homely feel’ and sending positive vibes and intentions through familiar settings.
Medical facilities seemed to have borrowed this from the thriving hospitality industry and have even extended it beyond waiting rooms and lobbies. Café and eateries provide a calm and inviting space for visitors and patients alike to sit down and relax.
All these changes and advances have positively impacted the patient experience in hospitals and consequently helped others heal faster.
Personalized rooms for patients
Along with lobbies, waiting rooms, and café, patient rooms have also gotten upgrades, if not the biggest. Personalization is done through pre-surveys that patients take and then are allocated to rooms with those specifications. Features such as a patient’s favorite color, food, magazine, flower, and smell are all taken into account. This allows patients to be welcomed with all of their favorite things upon entry into their room thus eliminating the anxiety and stress of hospital visits and stays.
Other personalization features such as family photos, televisions, and wall art are also part of the change. As space is in high demand and a patient’s room needs to be big enough to fit not only the patient, but doctors and nurses, visiting family and friends, and, if necessary, machines. All this need for space means that an ordinary patient’s room with a small amount of furniture can quickly become overcrowded.
This problem is being combated with the introduction of smart and multipurpose furniture such as sofas with under-storage for pillows and blankets or overall smaller furniture to reduce the strain of space demand.
Infection Control
With the rise of multi-drug-resistant organisms, hospital-related infections hold a critical risk in medical facilities. As hospitals are full of all sorts of sick people the chances of visitors getting sick or already sick patients getting sicker is big and because of this, changes such as the texture and materials used in hospital designs are changing.
These changes include having single patients bathrooms with sides that are sloped and offset drains, special lights that have a visible indigo hue that has a high enough intensity to kill bacteria and not affect the cells of a human, vinyl textiles, Crypton finishes, clean lines, and smooth, rounded edges all to avoid the spread and manifestation of bacteria.
Another of these bacteria-fighting methods is the general and overall use of copper alloy surfaces. Copper alloy is a material on which microbes die in the space of one to two hours, effectively suffocating the majority of germs and diseases spreading.
One of the best and still very promoted and advised ways to curb germ spread is hand washing this is often done with either waterless antibacterial hand sanitizers or good old soap and water. Many professionals now use antimicrobial scrubs as a preventative and germ-killing method.
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