Upcoming Research Reports & Papers

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Contribution of the Design Environment to Fall Risk in Hospitals

Principal Investigator, Margaret Calkins, Ph.D. of Ideas Institute, was awarded funds through The Center for Health Design's Research Coalition in May 2009.  This research project will run through the beginning of 2011, with a report published around March 2011.

Patient falls are the most common adverse event that is reported in acute care settings, affecting from between 2% to 10% of annual hospital admissions (Hendrich, Nyhuis, Kippenbrock, & Soja, 1995).  Patient falls in healthcare settings caused increased morbidity, mortality, increases length of stay, and have significant cost impacts.

Because of the lack of validated environmental assessment instruments related to falls, the first phase of the project will use a Delphi process to develop a reliable and valid falls environment evaluation tool (FEET). Once developed, it will be used to assess the environment in at least 30 hospital units to examine the differential role the environment plays in falls.  It is hypothesized that there will be fewer falls and less serious injuries from falls in patient rooms that have more fall-related supportive features and fewer fall-related environmental risk factors.  This project seeks to provide concrete and practical information on building design and materials that impact falls and injury from falls in healthcare settings.

Improving the Waiting Experience in the Emergency Department:  A Two Phase Study

Principal Investigator, Upali Nanda, Ph.D. of American Art Resources, was awarded funds through The Center for Health Design's Research Coalition in May 2009.  This research project will run through the beginning of March 2010, with a report published around November 2010.

The aim of the study is to advance the theory and practice of the use of visual images in healthcare art and design, with a focus on improving the waiting experience of patients in the emergency department. A two-phase study on the identification and implementation of appropriate visual imagery for emergency department waiting rooms will be utilized as the study design:

Phase 1:  A literature review on the existing evidence on stress reducing visual imagery, with new insights from the field of neuroscience, as relevant to the emotional experience of waiting in the emergency department (ED).

Phase 2:  Application of findings of the literature review by designing visual intervention conditions for 2 emergency departments in the Houston area, and analyzing the impact on patient experience via observational studies and analysis of survey data in pre-post research design.

A comprehensive report providing a summary of the literature, matrix of reviewed studies, findings from case-studies, and recommendations for healthcare designers will be compiled.  The cross-disciplinary team involved in the project will include experts on healthcare art and design, healthcare administrators, research scholars from the cognitive sciences, and clinical research personnel from the hospital.

Philips Ambient Experience Research

We are working with Philips Design to identify 2-3 research projects that will examine the impact of the Philips Ambient Experience program on patient, staff and financial outcomes. The Center’s research team participated in a research workshop with the Phillips staff and are now in the process of short listing some exciting research possibilities.