Objective: This study aims to review and synthesize the empirical evidence about the connection between healthcare facility design and the mental health of healthcare professionals by reviewing the relevant literature. Background: Mental exhaustion of healthcare professionals is becoming a critical issue in healthcare, especially during the pandemic. The physical design of healthcare facilities has significant potential to reduce and prevent the mental exhaustion of healthcare professionals by removing environmental stressors and providing restorative experiences. However, the built environment is not fully utilized as an intervention to support healthcare professionals. Methods: Relevant articles were identified from the Medline, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Web of Science databases using a combination of search terms representing environmental design factors and health outcomes. Identified articles were reviewed by their titles, abstracts, and full texts using the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results: The search yielded 27 empirical articles investigating the relationships between environmental design factors and staff mental health outcomes, including stress, fatigue, job satisfaction, burnout, and well-being. Healthcare design aspects that were investigated in the identified articles include overall facility and perception (e.g., aesthetic appeal and impression, belonging to the surroundings, safety), specific spaces (e.g., patient area, staff workspace), intangible elements (e.g., exterior view, light, sound), and interior space and ergonomics (e.g., material finishes, furniture). Conclusions: Through the synthesis of the current literature regarding the relationships between healthcare facility design and the mental health of healthcare professionals, this study provides implications for supporting healthcare professionals through the design of the healthcare facility.

Effective medical teamwork can improve the effectiveness and experience of care for staff and patients, including safety. Healthcare organizations, and especially primary care clinics, have sought to improve medical teamwork through improved layout and design, moving staff into shared multidisciplinary team rooms. While co-locating staff has been shown to increase communication, successful designs balance four teamwork needs: face-to-face communications; situational awareness; heads-down work; perception of teamness. However, precautions for COVID-19 make it more difficult to conduct face-to-face communications. In this paper we describe a model for understanding how layout affects these four teamwork needs and describe how the perception of teamwork by staff changed after COVID-19 precautions were put in place. Observations, interviews and two standard surveys were conducted in two primary care clinics before COVID-19 and again in 2021 after a year of precautions. In general, staff felt more isolated and found it more difficult to conduct brief consults, though these perceptions varied by role. RNs, who spent more time on the phone, found it convenient to work part time-from home, while medical assistants found it more difficult to find providers in the distanced clinics. These cases suggest some important considerations for future clinic designs, including greater physical transparency that also allow for physical separation and more spaces for informal communication that are distanced from workstations.

Objective: This article presents a pilot study that employed a user-centered methodology for evaluating and quantifying neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) designs based on the needs of the primary users. Background: The design of NICUs has begun to shift from open-bay to single-family rooms. Both designs present unique advantages and challenges that impact babies, families, and caregivers. Methods: One NICU design was analyzed using the functional scenario (FS) analysis method. For the FS, users’ needs were determined through literature review, interviews with NICU providers and parents, and a review of published design guidelines. Quantitative metrics were developed for each FS, so that characteristics of the NICU design could be analyzed to determine how successful they were in meeting the users’ needs. The results were graphically represented to visualize the success and considerations of the design. Results: A total of 23 FSs and 61 spatial metrics were developed. FSs for babies focused on infection prevention, minimizing exposure to environmental stimuli, and supporting enriching care activities. FSs for family members focused on direct access to the baby, and privacy and adequate space for daily activities. FSs for providers and caregivers focused on infection prevention, care activities, care zones, and visibility. Conclusion: Using an FS approach highlights design characteristics in the NICU that need to be addressed during the design process to more successfully meet the needs of the different users. Additionally, using this approach can inform design professionals’ decision-making by presenting them with the design characteristics that impact the needs of the user groups.

The importance of communication among healthcare providers has been long recognized, and many healthcare organizations are implementing team-based care, with emphasis on staff communication. While previous empirical studies in various settings illustrate the role of built environments in user communication, there is a lack of quantified interpersonal spatial metrics to predict interactions. This study investigates how interpersonal spatial metrics at different scales predict staff communication patterns by empirically studying four primary care clinics that provide team-based care. We found that staff members in clinics with higher visual connections among staff members reported more timely and frequent communication. We also found that staff members talked to each other more frequently when their workstations were visually connected. The findings of this study are expected to help designers and facility managers provide well-designed team-based clinic layouts, beyond just shared work spaces for team members, for improved staff communication.