If you could rebuild a hospital room from the ground up, what would it look like? You might see the answer in these pictures from NXT Health. It organized a design collaborative of 35 companies to design a 400-square-foot prototype at DuPont’s Corian Design Studio in New York City.
The Creative Director of the Patient Room 2020 project, David Ruthven, is a graduate of Clemson University’s hospital architecture program, one of a handful of programs with this focus in the U.S. He said of the patient room: “It’s pretty dramatic compared to what you would see in a hospital.” That’s an understatement.
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Although Ruthven admits this room would cost more to construct than a typical patient room, he points out that there will be fewer inpatient care rooms built in the future since the focus will be on outpatient care. What’s more, these rooms will be designed to last longer.
Every design decision in the futuristic acute care patient room was made to enhance the patient and caregiver experience. The room integrates hardware components such as a computer screen and iPad to improve sanitation. When the compartments are closed, UV lights would be used to sanitize them. It also provides easy storage.
The first concern was where to put the toilet because that choice determines many other design decisions. Bars run nearly the length of the room to the bathroom to make it easier for patients to navigate without falling. The toilet seat lifts by pressing a button.
The shower is designed for easy access and acts as an overflow area for medical equipment.
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The handwashing station has a motion detector that can read how long someone has washed their hands. A green light appears when the person’s hands are thoroughly washed.
The room uses light therapy as do some hospitals. Color bars, projections on the ceiling, and ultra-violet light are designed to calm patients. The room design borrows an idea used for MRI machines to relax patients in that claustrophobic environment.
Drawers embedded in the room hide medical equipment to reduce clutter.
NXT Health is also looking at other rooms in the point-of-care spectrum. An emergency room could be next.
Ruthven acknowledges that healthcare architecture has something of a design stigma attached to it because of the complexities of regulatory, patient and medical professional needs coming together. But he says he is excited by the Patient Room 2020 prototype and the ideas that drive it.
“I see a lot of potential for design. Your physical environment touches everything you do,” he said. “Instead of putting band-aid fixes on healthcare, why can’t we think of it conceptually?”
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