INT451

Communication and Privacy are two big elements that need to be considered in healthcare design. More and more, designers realize that the professionals and patients need better ways to communicate, and that can be improved through the design. For example, patients now have in their room, electronic medical records with either computers, barcode scanners or EMR devices. All of this improves the communication between the professional and the client because the client can now understand what the it is said since visual aids are in place. Privacy is also needed when these two prime people are communicating. The information said is disclosed and we want the patient to feel secure, safe and comfortable. Acoustics shall then be used to enhance that feeling, but proximity between the two shall be researched to know what is best.

One thing that I have learned through my research on design for healthcare is that there are several strategies that we can do in the design of the room that can improve the patient's help and help that person recover. For example, we can reduce the patient's stress by having a single-bed patient room, having a window that views on nature or by hiding from the patient's view unappealing elements such as trash cans, soiled linen, sharps container, etc.. Of course there are more strategies to improve the patient's health as well as his or her satisfaction such as the presence of the clock in the room or access to music (with choice and volume control).