The Center for Health Design and Facilities Guidelines Institute Announce 2009 Research Funding Recipients

Concord, CA. — The Center for Health Design (CHD), a research, education and advocacy non-profit, recently announced that it had awarded research funds for the project: Improving the Waiting Experience in the Emergency Department: A Two Phase Study by American Art Resources and that with support from The Facilities Guidelines Institute (FGI) it will co-fund the Contribution of the Design Environment to Fall Risk in Hospitals by the Ideas Institute.

The Facilities Guidelines Institute oversees the development and publication of The Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities, which are used across the country as the basis of codes and standards for all types of health care facilities including hospitals, extended care facilities and nursing homes.

CHD’s Research Coalition, under the leadership of Co-Chairmen H. Bart Franey, Professor Paul Barach, M.D. and Director of Research Anjali Joseph, Ph.D., completed a thorough review of requests for research proposals from 25 different organizations and individuals before selecting the winning submissions. Priority was given to studies whose results could easily be disseminated and applied. The 25 proposals were of such high quality, that additional funding from the FGI was sought to fund two major projects.

“The CHD Research Coalition has raised the bar this year by supporting original and cutting-edge research. This will help move the industry forward by adding to the body of knowledge. We’re delighted that we were able to partner with the Facilities Guidelines Institute to support what promises to be high caliber research,” said Debra Levin, President and CEO of CHD.

“Changes to those guidelines advised by this type of research is very important to health care improvement in America and to other countries that use the Guidelines in facilities development,” said Jim Lussier, FGI representative.

About The Projects

Principal Investigator, Upali Nanda, Ph.D., of American Art Resources, was awarded funds from CHD for Improving the Waiting Experience in the Emergency Department: A Two-Phase Study. This study is expected to run through the beginning of March 2010, while the report’s estimated publication date is November 2010. The aim of this study is to advance the theory and practice of the use of visual images in healthcare art and design, with a focus on improving the waiting experience of patients in the emergency department. A two-phase study on the identification and implementation of appropriate visual imagery for emergency department waiting rooms will be utilized as the study design:

* Phase 1: A literature review on the existing evidence on stress reducing visual imagery, with new insights from the field of neuroscience, as relevant to the emotional experience of waiting in the emergency department (ED).
* Phase 2: Application of findings of the literature review by designing visual intervention conditions for 2 emergency departments in the Houston area, and analyzing the impact on patient experience via observational studies and analysis of survey data in pre-post research design.

Results will be compiled into a comprehensive summary of the literature, matrix of reviewed studies, findings from case-studies, and recommendations for healthcare designers. The cross-disciplinary team involved in the project is expected to include experts on healthcare art and design, healthcare administrators, research scholars from the cognitive sciences, and clinical research personnel from the hospital.

CHD and FGI awarded funds to Margaret Calkins, Ph.D., of Ideas Institute, and Principal Investigator for a Contribution of the Design Environment to Fall Risk in Hospitals. This research project will run through the beginning of 2011, and has an expected publication date of March 2011.

This study will focus on patient falls, a topic which is the most common adverse event reported in acute care settings, and it seeks to provide concrete and practical information on building design and materials that impact falls and their associated injuries in healthcare settings. The first phase of the project will use a Delphi process to develop a reliable falls environment evaluation tool (FEET). Once developed, it will be used to assess the environment in at least 30 hospital units to examine the differential role the environment plays in falls. It is hypothesized that there will be fewer falls and less serious injuries from falls in patient rooms that have more fall-related supportive features and fewer fall-related environmental risk factors.

Upon completion of both studies, the CHD Research Coalition will disseminate the results following a peer-review process.

About The Center for Health Design

The Center for Health Design (CHD) formed in 1993, is a nonprofit research and advocacy organization of forward-thinking healthcare, elder care, design and construction professionals and product manufacturers who are leading the quest to improve the quality of healthcare facilities and create new environments for healthy aging. The CHD Research Coalition promotes the dissemination of research that contributes to therapeutic, safe, efficient and effective healthcare settings. The group also strives to support projects that fill critical gaps in the field of evidence-based design (EBD) while growing the network of researchers engaged in EBD by rewarding funds to select EBD research projects. www.healthdesign.org

About the Facilities Guidelines Institute

The Facilities Guidelines Institute is dedicated to the continuous development and publication of The Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities, used extensively in America to guide codes and standards and the ultimate development of health facilities. FGI is dedicated to constantly improving the process and the content of the Guidelines to keep it a dynamic document that truly reflects the latest state of the art in healthcare technologies and design and continues to strive for a document that is credible, reasonable, and knowledge-based and that will maintain the tradition of American hospitals and health facilities that might serve as a role model for the rest of the world. For more information about FGI, contact info@fgiguidelines.org.

SOURCE The Center For Health Design