Part of the McGill University Health Center complex.

This Harvard Business Review article reports on how hospital design can improve clinical outcomes along with patient satisfaction, The HBR study reinforced a growing understanding of the importance 0f good design in patient care.

It discusses research showing how design can stop the spread of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), reduce patient pain and shorten hospital stays.

One example:  McGill University Health Center,  in Montreal, cut  hospital-acquired infections by more than half  by making all rooms in its intensive-care unit private rooms and cutting the average length of ICU stays by 10 percent.

The findings echo the initial results of the University of Chicago’s three-year program  documented how new design affected bacterial growth. It demonstrated how  a wide range of things, from ventilation and humidity levels to the material used for countertops and other surfaces, influenced microbial growth.