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When it comes to capturing nature and its healing powers, the area’s newest healthcare facility, Dublin Methodist Hospital, has come ever so close to bringing the outdoors in.
But while bathing in natural light and relaxing to the smooth sounds of water may be peaceful, it also has proven healing powers.
On March 5, some two dozen members of the Central Ohio IFMA Chapter were privy to an up-close and personal look at Dublin Methodist’s approach to healthcare with a tour that took the group through nearly every part of the facility.
Studies indicate that while patient care and treatment are most effective in aiding patients on their road to health, environment – which includes family support – also plays a significant role in speeding the healing process.
We don’t necessarily want to feel like a hospital,” said Albert Wright, vice president of patient care/operations, and one of the afternoon’s tour guides. “Rather, it’s a peaceful, healing environment.”
Open for only three months now, the hospital holds about 100 beds, a third of which were occupied during the IFMA tour.
But from the second the group entered the hospital, only a quiet peacefulness was evident throughout the facility. There were no pages over the loud speaker, no personnel rushing down the hallways, no clatter of carts being pushed from one area to the other.
Upon entering the facility, every guest is welcomed by a hospital greeter seated at a small kiosk. With the traditional registration desk absent, visitors and patients are free to take in the full experience of the hospital’s two-story atrium with a three and a half story waterfall, six live trees, plenty of natural light, and tinted concrete paths that mimic a garden setting.
But the natural setting doesn’t end there. Architects and planners from Karlsberger purposefully continued the natural setting throughout every inch of the facility.
Large, natural artwork hangs on muted brown, rust and blue walls, and river stones and beveled glass emit the feel of nature. In addition, curved lines incorporated into the furniture and walls take away from the often industrial atmosphere of many older hospitals and healthcare facilities.
Every inch of the hospital space, from patient waiting areas, to bathrooms, to window sills and administrative offices, has been purposefully planned to include the power of nature, peacefulness, and healing.
Absent is also much of the tedious, administrative feel from the hospital. The facility is wireless and paperless. Large, paper-laden nurses’ stations are replaced with decentralized nursing perches which are like small, circular umbrellaed pillars with chairs for nurses and doctors to “perch” on and work on their laptops.
Because all personnel use voice-activated person-to-person pagers, absent are any loud hospital pages or noisy phone conversations. The technology allows anyone working in the hospital to be personally and immediately located. The unit hangs around the user’s neck and allows for communication from both inside and outside of the hospital.
“It’s pretty intuitive,” said Wright, and who also said it helps cut down on hospital noise.
While the winding garden-like concrete leads visitors to different parts of the hospital, carpet has been strategically placed near all patient rooms to further cut down on hospital noise.
Further enhancing the patient’s recovery process are several healing gardens, also allowing more natural light to spill into the center of the facility.
Patient rooms boast of large bathrooms, complete with roomy showers for loved ones who choose to stay. Each room also holds a full-size sleeper sofa, and large desks and work areas next to windows which look directly outdoors to the nearly 800 trees and eight wetland ponds created on the property surrounding the hospital.
Also on the cutting edge is the hospital’s view of a patient’s mobility.
Unlike traditional hospitals where a patient is moved if his or her condition changes, varying levels of care are brought right to the patient at Dublin Methodist.
“Once a patient is admitted to a bed, that room becomes what it needs to become,” said Wright. “We bring the services to the patient.”
While this method may add some additional cost because more nurses are needed to cover more critical patient needs, Wright said the practice facilitates the healing process – again a top priority at the hospital.
Even the hospital’s cafeteria has a “Starbucks” feel with plenty of low walls awash in rusts, browns, and other natural colors.
“We tried to pull in more of a residential feel to it,” said Susan Long, vice president of interior design for Karlsberger and member of the Central Ohio Chapter.
It’s a comfortable feel evident throughout the entire facility
With nearly 3,000 tons of steel infrastructure, 58,000 linear feet of water piping, over one million square feet of drywall, and 7,100 light fixtures, any visitor to Dublin Methodist is reminded that behind the natural setting is a very real structure.
But because of the painstaking efforts of architects and hospital planners, the reality of the man-made structure is lost in the tranquility and peaceful healing atmosphere of Columbus’ newest and most innovative hospital.