Someday not too long from now, when you are away from home, you might have the chance to stay in a room unlike any you've ever seen. You'll have unprecedented privacy with your bathroom restocked from the hallway, your bedside remote will let you pull up the shades or flip on the AC. And the TV will fill an entire wall. It could be a swank hotel, but it's the hospital room of the future.
Time for an upgrade
Hospitals need to change, and they're turning to architects for help. In part the impetus for new-look hospitals is bureaucratic. Medicare and private insurers are moving away from the fee-for-service model, in which they pay for each procedure and Tylenol tab-let, to flat-fee payments for entire episodes of care - a knee replacement, say, or an arterial bypass operation - so rooms are less of a profit center. Medicare has also begun paying bonuses to hospitals that provide effective, high-quality treatment, while penalizing those that don't meet basic standards or have high rates of avoidable readmissions. Private insurers are beginning to follow suit.
The changes dovetail with years of research showing that the color, shape, layout, and accoutrements of a hospital room have a direct effect on health. In 2005, a team at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center studied the effect of sunlight on the recovery of patients who'd just had spinal surgery. Comparing patients on brighter and darker sides of a room, the experiment concluded that sunlight significantly reduced both pain and the need for analgesic medication. Dozens of other studies have reached similar conclusions on patient exposure to nature and art, classical music, colored walls, and the presence of family members. In other words, pleasant rooms aren't only more comfortable; they're therapeutic.
unprecedented adj.
/ˌʌnˈprɛsəˌdɛntəd/
swank adj.
/ˈswæŋk/
very fashionable and expensive: swanky
- a swank club/hotel/restaurant
impetus n.
/ˈɪmpətəs/
1 an influence that makes something happen or makes it happen more quickly
2 the force that makes an object start moving, or keeps it moving
bureaucratic adj.
/ˌbjɚrəˈkrætɪk/
involving a lot of complicated official rules and processes
episode n.
/ˈɛpəˌsoʊd/
an event or a short period of time during which something happens
penalize v.
/ˈpi:nəˌlaɪz/
to punish (someone or something) for breaking a rule or a law
accoutrement n.
/əˈku:trəmənt, əˈku:tɚmənt/
therapeutic adj.
/ˌθerəˈpju:tɪk/
2 relating to the treatment or cure of an illness
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