Views to Nature in Hospitals

Panoramic Views from a Patient Room at the University of Chicago Center for Care and Discovery

The University Chicago Medical Center is an academic Hospital was established in 1899 and is located in Hyde Park Chicago. We had the pleasure of visiting and tour their new Center for Care and Discovery that provides specialty care with a focus on cancer, gastrointestinal disease, neuroscience, advanced surgery and high-tech medical imaging.

The hospital stretches about 1.2 miles and consists of a huge floor plate with a universal grid, that has given the hospital the opportunity to have a variety of programming within the large footprint. This hospital was not designed as a replacement hospital, but from an operational standpoint, much of the services that were given in the old hospital has moved over to the new. They opened a new emergency room and will become apart of their trauma center.

They have 56 prep and recovery spaces on their operational floor; and the use of nonverbal communication between nurses helps the hospital flow better.

The hospital is equipped with a Rock Garden on the roof and planters spread throughout.

The bathroom is stationed on the head wall of the patient rooms, this decision is made to reduce injury to the patient by giving them access to the bathroom with many points along the wall for support. This also helps the patient feel a better sense of privacy, however the downfall to this setup is that the nurses lose their line of sight on the patient.

In one of the patient rooms, I noticed that there were mirrors placed on each side of the window. When I first saw this, I initially thought that maybe you were given extended into the patient room next to you, and I once I looked a little longer I realized was the design intervention was doing. This strategic design technique provided the feeling of seeing the nature all around, and it felt like your view was extended beyond the windows provided to you. There is plenty of research out there that supports the idea that providing patients with views to the outside, to green spaces and plants can increase their recovery time. While we visited the hospital in the winter time, I am sure that the patients enjoy the views to Washington Park in the summertime.