Designing For The Senses
by Kirsten Nelson
The senses play an influential role in designing clinics and hospitals. And that includes factors that AV integrators don’t usually have to think about, including the taste of food.
But the provision of meal options that appeal to patients is an important element in creating a healing and nurturing environment. So innovating around culturally concordant and plant-based food options is where Dr. Kevin Chen, Senior Director, Design and Evaluation with NYC Health + Hospitals began our tour of the senses in the healthcare environment.
Once we covered the fundamentals of taste and smell (no, this is not an opportunity for scent-branding — in the health care setting, ideally the goal is to reduce strong smells and create a neutral odor), we got into the audio and visual.
Alerts — Alarm fatigue is real, especially in the inpatient setting. When there are too many sounds, sometimes people end up ignoring vital alerts. There’s also a visual component to alarm fatigue. Too many pop-ups demanding physician responses can get in the way of care. “So actually some of our work is related to the choice architecture of how you nudge people to do the right thing using different visual prompts without overwhelming them and making them turn their senses off to the input,” Dr. Chen noted.
Lighting — Windows make a huge difference to patients and the care providers who spend all day indoors treating them. “The design of a space can create a certain feeling or mindset, Dr. Chen said. “When you have windows in the room, it does set the mood for both the patient and the clinician.”
But where you can’t add windows, it might be possible to add lighting control. This also relates to the importance of maintaining circadian rhythms in the hospital setting. When sleeping and waking schedules are consistent, then appetite and healing can improve, leading to better overall wellbeing.
And among older patients, light levels and maintaining circadian rhythms are important to preventing delirium — light can help patients know the time of day, which is foundational to knowing where you are and what’s going on. In fact, every sense plays a role there, Dr. Chen explained. “One of the ways to prevent delirium is to ensure that all of the patient’s senses are grounded. If they can’t hear and can’t understand what people are saying, that’s going to add to the level of confusion. It’s not a cognitive issue, per se, it’s a sensory issue.”
Sometimes in the shuffle of getting people checked into hospitals, glasses and hearing aids are misplaced. “But they’re also the most important in keeping people present and grounded in their environment and preventing confusion.”
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed by Dr. Kevin Chen are his own and not those of NYC Health + Hospitals
