After a trip to Lurie Childrens Hospital located just off of Michigan Avenue it got me thinking about the differences between children's hospitals (pediatric) and adult hospitals. Of course there are the fun themes, wall art, and interactive aspect that makes children hospitals a little bit different but operationally, how do these two different places work? Is there a way that one can learn from the other?
During our tour of Lurie we were able to see the newest addition to their high-rise hospital which will be a completely new 22nd ICU floor. This was a really great chance for our studio to see what designers are building for the now. While there have still be 'reasons learned' during the design and construction phase, this new floor exhibits everything that Lurie wants its healthcare to encompass. The hospital in a whole is a lot different than anything else we as a class had seen to date even. The lobby was ocean themed complete with a life sized humpback whale suspended from the ceiling, a treehouse, and real fish tanks. The rooms were single patient outboard units complete with a nurses porch outside of each room. To the outside this seemed like a normal yet very nice children's hospital but after seeing many adult hospitals this semester I decided to do some digging on operational differences. Is there something that adult hospitals can learn from children's hospitals?
This brought me to an article that was pretty interesting and really gave me the idea for this post. In the article the author brings up 4 main differences between pediatric hospitals and adult centered hospitals.
1. Family Centered Care
2. Patient Safety
3. Care Coordination and Collaboration
4. Facilities and Healing Enviornments
It is interesting that family centered care is number one on the list, but it makes sense. While visiting various hospitals around the city we always have heard of the family space that is allotted in the room, but at Lurie they really put an emphasis on this space. I think it really hits home for a lot of individuals when they have to imagine if their child was in the hospital. The reality of this is that most parents spend the night in their child's room, for nights on end. As the article says, "In pediatrics, family-centered care is based on the understanding that parents and family members are a child's primary source of strength and support." They also act as part of the decision making process. Now adult hospitals are starting to follow in this model and understand the need for family space in the hospital. Instead of being solely observers hospitals are now seeing family members as participants.
While there has been a significant change in the way that the hospitals treat their patients, it can also be seen that this patient safety initiative has also stemmed from children's hospitals. This is because of the organizations that children's hospitals have in place. Because they are dealing with children patient safety and safe practices has always been at the top of the charts for children's hospitals. Organizations like the Child Health PSO and the CHSPS (The Children's Hospitals' Solutions for Patient Safety Network work together to provide a network where hospitals must share information, experiences, and outcomes. The idea behind these organizations is a "all teach, all learn" philosophy. This is just another area where adult hospitals are getting into and we can't help but think that they may have followed suit behind children's hospitals.
According to the article, care coordination is the...
"deliberate organization of patient care activities between two or more participants involved in that patient's care to ensure proper delivery of services"
While this can be seen in all hospitals both for adults and for children or pediatrics, children's hospitals seem to have this process nailed down. This is due to the excellent care mapping and coordination that children's hospital's partake in. With 2/3 of the children admitted into children's hospitals receiving Medicaid, pediatrics have had to really crunch down and and organize how they receive their funds and and organizational system. These are they systems and the literature on them that adult hospitals are using to better operate their hospitals.
And lastly, facilities and environments. Now we are back to the topic of whales and fish tanks in the lobbies of pediatric hospitals, but actually there could be some things that adult hospitals could learn from this. In the article I read a healthcare architect, and mother of a child that had to be admitted into a pediatric hospital, explained how her experience in a children's hospital was and how she now has learned form that in designing both pediatric and adult spaces.
"Osan and her team built bubble columns in a children's hospital's waiting room. The bubbling water features combine the movement of bubbles and LED lighting to create visual interest. Soon thereafter, Osan and her team built something similar—a bubble wall with the feel of a waterfall—in an adult health care facility nearby. This is just one example of how adult institutions are rethinking facility design with patient and families in mind, something that children's hospitals grasped years ago."
Maybe children don't always learn from adults. While it might seem like an odd thought, as healthcare architects, healthcare professionals, and even patients we need to step back and realize that pediatric and adult hospitals are very different from each other, and that maybe the adults could do a little bit of learning from their smaller counterparts.
Check out more information on this topic in the article I mentioned above:
https://www.childrenshospitals.org/newsroom/childrens-hospitals-today/summer-2017/articles/4-ways-childrens-hospitals-are-leading-adult-hospitals
Photo Credit:
https://www.google.com/search?q=kid+pulling+parent+on+a+leash&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi87azL-6raAhXm4IMKHdJMBiAQsAQIJg&biw=1439&bih=739#imgrc=YqHXYQ2lluwviM:
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