Reimagining the role of a building in improving the health of its inhabitants

Ravideep Singh, Associate Director, Creative Designer Architects (CDA) explains how architects are reimagining healthcare environments to improve patient and caregiver experiences

The global understanding of healthcare has evolved in the post-pandemic world, as has our approach to designing healthcare facilities. The role of architects and planners in designing healthcare facilities is not limited to providing functional spaces but extends to creating environments that promote health and well-being. The built environments of the hospitals significantly impact patient recovery rates, patient experience and staff satisfaction, psychological and physical well-being. As a result, the Evidence-Based Design (EBD) approach has become increasingly popular in recent years. In addition, the de-stigmatization of ‘behavioural health issues has gained a lot of importance and impacted our perception of the built environment.

Healthcare architects have now begun to rely on psychology and behavioural science to curate holistic healthcare environments instead of depending only on big-box functional hospital buildings, which lack empathy. Architects have emphasised the importance of responsive lighting design, including circadian lighting, strategic incorporation of biophilia, and tactical use of colour based on colour psychology. This approach aims to create healthcare environments that promote healing and recovery and minimize stress for patients and caregivers.

Challenges in healthcare planning

A primary challenge architects and healthcare planners face is the limited availability of data to substantiate design decisions. There is also a need for more acknowledgment of potential ROIs linked with metrics such as patient experience, patient safety, staff satisfaction rates etc. Western benchmarks such as HCAHPS are an excellent reference to build upon in India. Additionally, the Indian hospital building codes are still a work in progress. For example, the height permittance of service floors, which is the core of crucial services augmentation, is capped, leading to potential inefficiencies.

Technology integration in healthcare environments

Technology has revolutionised healthcare delivery, and we must embrace new technologies to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare spaces. Technologies such as telemedicine, Artificial Intelligence (AI), electronic health records, and IoHT, etc., incite healthcare to move out of the physical bounds of a hospital building and step into homes through smart technology. The future of healthcare, like most other industries, is digital.

Healthcare futurists and researchers are now focused on orienting the healthcare system towards a physically disintegrated and digitally seamless care delivery model. The future of healthcare will collaborate with IoT, make the best use of rapidly changing technology, and manifest into an efficient model that is less susceptible to untimely collapse, claim researchers. Employing tools such as big data and AI will allow healthcare professionals and designers to comprehend patterns out of patients’ existing profiles and use them to create dynamic, iterative design layouts for reconfigurable hospitals. With the help of technology and the growing acceptance of digital interactions, patients’ health will soon be monitored by smart infrastructure remotely by doctors and nurses.

The role of AI and Virtual Reality (VR) in healthcare design is vast. The design of healthcare facilities today should be based on a careful analysis of end-user flow and experience which is intrinsically interfaced with technology at several levels. AI can help enhance patient experiences via patient data collection and analysis to curate more responsive experiences such as personalized lighting, NLP-driven interfaces in the facility, VR and AR-powered bots for an increasingly streamlined user experience. Another area where AI has immense potential is sustainability and energy optimization. AI via tools like Arup’s Neuron can help study and analyse facility usage patterns to trigger automated response measures for enhanced efficiency.

From a facility design standpoint, technology is an intrinsic part of the end-user trajectory within the facility. The interfaces that enhance user experience simultaneously build on sustainability via design and operation. For instance, digital consultation bookings and cue management reduce the physical infra and the need for full-time equivalents like students, interns or workers.

Measuring the success of healthcare environments

The measure of the success of healthcare environments against key metrics is very crucial. From an architect and healthcare provider’s perspective, the only way to measure efficacy is through post-occupancy evaluation studies (POE). POEs measure how well a planning/design works and share it with the industry via peer-reviewed papers/journals. From a patient perspective, HCAHPS/HCAHPS-like tools measure how exactly a healthcare system stands in metrics efficiency.

Today, most of the healthcare design notions in India are still based more on experience, intuition, and hypothesis and lesser on research evidence. The concept of data collection, post-occupancy evaluation and evidence-based design (EBD) is highly concentrated in the West, diminishing its application and efficacy globally. Hence, more local data collection, analysis and research are needed to help curate high-potency ‘Glocal’ responses.

Preparing for the future

Future-proofing healthcare infrastructure requires a long-term vision and investment in modern technologies, sustainable practices, and resilient infrastructure. Hospitals should broaden the healthcare horizon beyond buildings to institute a healthier, more resilient population with better endurance against infections, ailments, or future pandemics.

Healthcare planners must collaborate with communities to understand their needs and develop impactful solutions. Community engagement can reduce costs by identifying the gaps in the system and enabling more thoughtful solutions that address them. During the design and planning phase of a healthcare ecosystem, designers, developers, policymakers and other stakeholders must consider two fundamental principles – preventive health and wellness and equity in care delivery. Hospitals must focus on community integration and cultural penetration to effectuate communal health and wellness. Healthcare providers, policy-makers and designers should come together to design collaborative spaces and programs that will encourage interaction and educate the community about health and wellness, such as maintaining healthy diets, self-monitoring etc.

To curate salutogenic environments, there needs to be a robust emphasis on end-user psychology to put forth responsive design elements driven by data and empathy.

Significant strides in research and development of these schemes are underway, and the future looks promising. Moreover, the involvement of tech giants is already underway, paving the way for considerable investments in research and development in this space. With a commitment to improving the healthcare scenario, with architects working in partnership with doctors, researchers and tech giants, an evolved healthcare ecosystem awaits us all.