The Green Patient Room:
A 3-D Experience in Every Context

by Glenn Fischer

The Green Patient Room is a 400-square-foot exhibit of sustainable concepts that can be applied to patient rooms. The Green Patient Room is the creation of the International Facility Management Association’s Healthcare Council, Healthcare Building Ideas, design firm Anshen+Allen and the Corporate Realty, Design & Management Institute. Skanska USA is also involved in this project.   During World Workplace in New Orleans this past fall, the exhibit was packed with architects, interior designers, facility managers, reporters and TV film crews. Prior to that, it was the star of the green centerpiece at the 2007 Commercial Construction Show in Chicago. So what makes this exhibit so popular, since many of the products in the Green Patient Room are on display at other booths in exhibit halls? The answer is simple—Context. Good design goes beyond aesthetics, it also must take into account factors such as constructability, first cost considerations, life cycle costs, the environment, and how it affects the people using the space. Yet, the reality is that very few people can read and understand blueprints. While renderings can give you a sense of how a space will look, they never fully convey the feeling you get by actually being inside the space.

The Green Patient Room’s family zone offers a hospitality setting featuring artwork, lighting and window drapery, as well as a family work area and ample storage options. It features flooring made from renewable resources and a sleeper sofa made without polyvinyl chloride, which has negative effects on the environment and human health. The terrace offers an outdoor seating area with a coffee table and plants and features furniture made with recyclable polypropylene.

Also, no matter how hard you eyeball an individual product, it’s difficult to understand how it interrelates with other elements in a facility. A full size mockup, however, can engage people like no other method. Every element in the space, no matter how small, can be seen in context with everything else and with the people using the space.

You can see the power of context at any car dealer. As you slip into the driver’s seat, close the door, turn the key and begin the test drive, everything about this automobile is put into context. Is there enough headroom?  Is the dash laid out in a logical manner? Is there wind noise when driving on the freeway? How well does it handle? No brochure could ever reveal the answers.

The Green Patient Room is not the exact patient room you will experience in a hospital.  However, many of the features are being incorporated into hospital projects. It is a three-dimensional concept that allows facilities managers, architects, designers, contractors, hospital administrators, doctors and nurses to see, touch and discuss the state of the art thinking in healthcare design and operations in the context of a hospital patient room.

As you walk through the Green Patient Room, you will notice the strategically placed placards detailing why specific design concepts and products were used and the benefit provided. This is not a static display. Designers from the architectural firm, Anshen+Allen, along with IFMA Healthcare Council representatives are on-hand to demonstrate the how and why behind every design decision—large and small.

There are five zones: family, terrace, patient, staff, and bathroom. The objective is threefold:

1. Demonstrate sustainable materials and technologies that are economically viable and readily available in intensive healthcare settings.
2. Show how best practices and evidence-based design can improve the quality of care for patients, encourage families to visit, and reduce the stress for staff.
3. Create a focal point for discussing the issues and solutions affecting hospitals today.

Studies reveal that families who visit frequently, stay longer and are involved in patient care, help reduce healing times and improve patient well being. The layout of the Green Patient Room encourages family stays. The design is similar to a living room with a television, sleeper sofa, workspace with internet access and a wall unit with a bench and storage seats. The family zone allows family members to work or be entertained while the patient is receiving treatments or sleeping.

A work area accommodates physicians and nurses in recording patient data electronically while still in the room.

The Green Patient Room is also about the details, big and small. While a nightlight is not an easy item to value-engineer out of a project; a well-placed nightlight can prevent somebody’s grandmother from falling and breaking a hip while she is in the hospital. The nightlight selected uses an amber-colored LED so it will not disrupt the patient’s circadian rhythm. It also consumes only 6-watts of energy. The life of an LED is measured in years, not hours. It doesn’t scream “pick me” when scanning a product catalogue, but in the context of the Green Patient Room that little nightlight is very important. Lighting controls are also being added to the 2008 exhibit. More than 25 manufacturers are supplying products. Each serves a purpose in context with other elements and is part of the overall sustainable, healing story.

This project represents out of the box thinking when it comes to displaying ideas at a conference or trade show.  We have witnessed though-provoking conversations, debates and arguments in and around the Green Patient Room, as facilities managers, architects and engineers discuss how this concept, detail or product could reduce the cost of operating a hospital and improve the quality of patient care.

Here’s where you can visit the Green Patient Room in 2008:

• ASHE Technical Expo, Washington DC, July 20-23
• Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo, Chicago, Sept. 9-11
• High Performance Hospitals Seminar, Seattle, Oct. 7-8

More specifics about the Green Patient Room are available by visiting www.ifma-hc.org or contacting Gary Collins, IFMA Healthcare Council President at gwc@anshen.com or 312-622-3732.  The Green Patient Room is one of several projects undertaken by the IFMA Healthcare Council.

Glenn Fischer is Executive Vice President of Corporate Realty, Design & Management Institute. He serves on the IFMA Healthcare Council Board of Directors and is a program reviewer for the U.S. Green Building Council’s Greenbuild Expo. He manages the High Performance Hospitals & Medical Research Facilities seminar series and Turning Green into Gold® educational programs on behalf of the Institute. He can be contacted at gfischer@squarefoootage.net or 503-274-7162.