Evidence-based design

Overview

Evidence-based design is a process used by architects, interior designers, facility managers, and others in the planning, design, and construction of commercial buildings. An evidence-based designer, together with an informed client, makes decisions based on the best information available from research and project evaluations. Critical thinking is required to develop an appropriate solution to the design problem; the pool of information will rarely offer a precise fit with a client's unique situation. In the last analysis, though, an evidence-based design should result in demonstrated improvements in the organization's outcomes, economic performance, productivity, customer satisfaction, and cultural measures.

This is a method applicable to many types of commercial building projects, but is uniquely suited to healthcare because of the unusually high stakes and major issues of safety and improved clinical outcomes. A natural parallel and analog to evidence-based medicine, it is currently being used in the healthcare industry to help convince decision-makers to invest the time and money to build better buildings - and realize strategic business advantages as a result.

Research relevant to healthcare design can come from many areas:

• Environmental psychologists focus on stress reduction, which includes:
  1. social support (patients, family, staff);
  2. control (privacy, choices, escape);
  3. positive distractions (artwork, music, entertainment);
  4. influence of nature (plants, flowers, water, wildlife, nature sounds).
• Clinicians focus on medical and scientific literature, which includes:
  1. treatment modalities (models of care, technology);
  2. quality & safety (infections, errors, falls);
  3. exercise (exertion, rehabilitation).
• Administration refers to management literature:
  1. financial performance (margin, cost per patient day, nursing hours);
  2. operational efficiency (transfers, utilization, resource conservation);
  3. satisfaction (patient, staff, physician, turnover).

Approximately 1200 credible studies with specific environmental relevance have been identified by The Center for Health Design in these areas, and many more applicable research citations are in other branches of the literature.

External links

• The Center for Health Design
• Role of the Physical Environment in the Hospital of the 21st Century report published by The Center for Health Design in 2004 that summarizes current evidence-based design research for healthcare.
• InformeDesign free online research database of studies linking the environment to outcomes.
• Exalted Fountains The use of indoor water features in evidence based design applications for healthcare settings.

=Further Reading

A Visual Reference for Evidence-Based Design by Jain Malkin Published by The Center for Health Design, March 2008 Template:WH Template:WS