Dignity Health Facilities Receive $220M Facelift to Express Health, Healing and Humankindness

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Dignity Health is underway with a $220-million, multi-phase improvement project across its 39-hospital network that recognizes the role the physical environment has on the ability to improve healing and the overall experience of patients, their families and visitors.  

Dignity Health is making this investment as part of its commitment to humankindness and to improving the experience of everyone who steps into a Dignity Health facility. All improvements are slated to be completed by December 2016.

Improvements will be realized in patient rooms, emergency departments, nurses’ stations, family and surgery waiting areas, main lobbies, parking areas, gardens and common areas. Guided by feedback from patients and their families, the improvements will flow from five design directives that link directly to patient needs:

Patient Need: Welcome me as a guest (a need to feel safe and acknowledged).
Design Directive: Refreshed surroundings and convenient added touches, such as easier access to wheelchairs, vehicle charging stations and more clearly defined entrances. Free and easy-access Wi-Fi will be available throughout the facilities.

Patient Need: Make me feel comfortable and comforted (a need to feel comfortable).
Design Directive: Custom-designed family seating will be available in patient rooms to respond to the needs of the family while visiting their friend or loved one. The cafeteria experience will provide more communal gatherings for guests, families and staff in warmer, more flexible surroundings.

Patient Need: Help me navigate with ease (a need to feel informed and empowered).
Design Directive: Improved wayfinding signage and a wayfinding app that will give visitors directions through any smartphone while on each campus.

Patient Need: See me as a person first (a need to feel respected and seen).
Design Directive: Remove barriers to human connection. The improvements to patient rooms, waiting areas and cafeterias will address this need. Interactive TVs and digital monitors will be provided in patient rooms and waiting areas.

Patient Need: Inspire my spirit to heal (a need to feel uplifted).
Design Directive: Interpret healing in unexpected ways. Healing messages will greet people both inside and outside the hospital to inspire healing for the staff, patients and their families and visitors. A wellness wall will be added to all cafeterias to encourage both staff and visitors to lead healthier lives.

Far from the typical hospital improvement project, these bold enhancements showcase Dignity Health’s kindness-centered brand with its creative approach.
The enhancements will also extend to employees and physicians as refreshed and refurbished staff and physician lounges that will provide places of respite for caregivers and staff.

Dignity Health also embraces the principles of environmental stewardship. These enhancements incorporate environmental principles, policies and procedures that include water conservation, reduced waste and increased recycling, elimination of hazardous chemicals and tracked greenhouse gases.

Each facility has a specific exterior and interior schedule of improvements that has been developed to minimize disruption of patient care.