Evidence-based design became a focus of study in the 1980s. This movement paired design choices with structured, formal scientific research. Rather than relying on anecdotal evidence of design choices, researchers systematically tracked data on patient outcomes. One recent study, for example, was able to demonstrate a reduction in the use of pain medications by patients in rooms with a view towards nature. 

Evidence-based design can focus on various aspects of hospital function. Decisions about design are influenced by what we know about human psychology and stress, medical treatments, infection control, financial considerations, efficiency, and human movement/traffic flow. Ultimately, the goal of evidence-based design is to improve patient outcomes, safety, and administration.

After thousands of years of medical care provided in homes and religious buildings, health care moved into the public sphere. Buildings were constructed solely for medical purposes, with patient quarters, staff facilities, and specialized equipment. However, no other era saw as much transformation in healthcare as the years between Florence Nightengale in the 1840s and the golden age of antibiotics in the 1940s. Today's post will examine the transformation of hospital spaces during this time period.

With life, there is illness. Some of the earliest examples of life on Earth, bacteria, show evidence of invasion by viruses. Our earliest recorded history includes written accounts of individuals trying to make sense of illness and injury. These early records, and the experiments and efforts that accompanied them, are the first examples of the scientific method which resulted in all our modern advances, including evidence-based design.

We were in the hospital room when the nurse came in holding a bag of clear liquid. She casually mentioned that she was giving my husband Rich lactated ringer. As she started to wind the tubing through the pump I asked, “What is lactated ringer?” She stopped and just looked at the bag. I continued, “What makes it different than just saline?”

“Well, it has more … It can … Well, the blood … COME ON NURSING SCHOOL, don’t fail me now!"

Often the words of a concerned family member capture the experience of infection control far better than any researcher or specialist. We read with great sympathy a recent letter to the editor of the Buffalo News by a man whose mother is fighting an infection she may have contracted during a hospital stay. The comments below the online post are full of personal stories that reveal that most, if not all of us, have personal stories having to do with a loved one contracting an infection from a healthcare setting.