How Views of Nature Can Support Patient Recovery
In 1984, Roger Ulrich published a study in Science that would become one of the landmark pieces of research in evidence-based healthcare design.
Ulrich examined the hospital records of patients recovering from gallbladder surgery in a Pennsylvania hospital. Twenty-three patients had rooms with windows looking onto a natural scene. Twenty-three closely matched patients, similar in age, sex and other relevant factors, had rooms facing a brick wall instead.
The patients with the natural view had shorter postoperative hospital stays, received fewer negative comments in nurses’ notes during recovery and used fewer potent pain medications than the matched group facing the brick wall. It was a small study by modern standards, 46 patients in total, but it demonstrated something important: aspects of the physical environment could be examined against measurable clinical outcomes, rather than treated purely as a matter of aesthetic preference. PubMed
The research has continued to develop. In southern Sweden, an emergency department was refurbished using evidence-based design principles, including changes to light and colour. A before-and-after study of patients and family members found that the redesigned environment was perceived as significantly more supportive across a number of measures including safety, privacy, orientation and control. PubMed Central (PMC)
More recently, a randomised controlled trial conducted in 2022 compared simulated hospital rooms based on evidence-based design, Feng Shui and Golden Ratio principles with an existing room used as the control. Among 558 participants, the evidence-based design environment was associated with lower anxiety and stronger ratings for sense of control, social support, positive distraction and pleasantness. DOI
This is the foundation much of Aliento’s thinking sits on. Not every design decision can point to evidence this direct, but the underlying principle matters: the healthcare environment can be evaluated for how it supports the people using it, rather than being treated simply as a matter of taste.