Virginia Postrel on Why Hospitals Should be More Attractive

Virginia Postrel has this fascinating piece in the Atlantic about why hospitals should be designed to be more attractive -- not just the drab taupe to which we have become accustomed:

Thank God for intravenous Benadryl, which knocks me out in just a few minutes. The cancer treatment is state-of-the-art, but the decor is decidedly behind the times.

Over the past decade, most public places have gotten noticeably better looking. We've gone from a world in which Starbucks set a cutting-edge standard for mass-market design to a world in which Starbucks establishes the bare minimum. If your establishment can't come up with an original look, customers expect at least some sleek wood fixtures, nicely upholstered chairs, and faux-Murano glass pendant lights.

Unless, that is, your establishment is a doctor's office, medical clinic, or hospital.

Mounting clinical evidence suggests that better design can improve patients' health -- not to mention their morale. But the one-sixth of the American economy devoted to health care hasn't kept up with the rest of the economy's aesthetic imperative, leaving patients to wonder, as a diabetes blogger puts it, "why hospital clinic interiors have to feel so much like a Motel 6 from the '70s."

A Hyatt from the early '80s might be more accurate. The United States is in the midst of a hospital-building boom, with some $200 billion expected to be spent on new facilities between 2004 and 2014. Although more spacious and sunlit than the 50-year-old boxes they often replace, even new medical centers tend to concentrate their amenities in public areas, the way hotels used to feature lavish atriums but furnish guest rooms with dirt-hiding floral bedspreads and fake-wood desks. Hospital lobbies may now have gardens, waterfalls, and piano music, but that doesn't mean their patient rooms, emergency departments, or imaging suites are also well designed. "Except for the computers you see, it's like a 1980s hospital," says Jain Malkin, a San Diego-based interior designer and the author of several reference books on health-care design. "The place where patients spend their time 24/7 is treated as if it's back-of-the-house."

She also has this great post on her blog showing the various designs of blood sugar monitors for diabetics. While all of our little gadgets are getting tinier, cuter, and more like Hello Kitty handbags, blood sugar monitors are failing to keep up. They are hardly the brick cell phone you had in the early nineties, but they don't look like they are designed by Apple.

Both of these articles bring home the message that if you are going to the ER, you probably give half a crap about whether it is well lit. On the other hand, if you are going to the hospital three days a week for dialysis, not having to feel like you are entering a dungeon would seriously improve your mood.

It's something I hadn't considered, but it is certainly true. Also, remember that doctors have to spend all their day in these ugly monstrosities too. It would certainly improve their quality of life if they were better looking as well.