Study: Hospitals' design impacts employee turnover

OK, the connection may be indirect. But the connection is there, say researchers from The Center for Health Design (CHD), which works to improve healthcare through evidence-based healthcare design. The physical environment of health organizations helps improve the health and safety of staff members, increasing care effectiveness, reducing errors and boosting job satisfaction. And that helps keep employees on board, according to a new paper published by CHD. Admittedly, they note, improving the physical environment won't do much if health organizations don't shift their work culture and practices. But proper design of healthcare facilities can reduce risk of disease and injury to hospital staff, while also cutting failures and wastage, the group says.

Sometimes this means facilities should take on airy, wide-open shapes more often found in hotels or airports, allowing for easier passage from place to place and a sense of peace. Other times it means better lighting design, creating less glare for healthcare staffers as they read documents, or moving supply areas closer to workers, saving many steps during a shift. Another popular step is moving to single-patient from double-patient rooms, saving nurses the trouble of doing the room-to-room patient shuffle. Regardless, the idea is to design the facility around the care rather than the care around the facility.

To learn more about this research:
- read this release from the CHD

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