By Dr Jane Repin Carthey

From Admission to Discharge: Designing Biophilic, Salutogenic and Eudemonic Hospital Spaces in a Post-pandemic World

Professor Evonne Miller, Dr Lindy Burton and I took part in an online webinar that was put together by the European Union Health Property Network on 4 September 2020. The theme of the session was: Relocate, Repurpose, Reorganize – The hospital response to the pandemic challenge. In our presentation we defined biophilic, salutogenic and eudemonic and looked at examples of these approaches in contemporary Austalian and historic health facilities within Australia and overseasa. All the presentations will be available on line and this post will be updated with the link when it is shared with us.

At the webinar, we presented an outline of our current research project. This project is looking at improving entrances and exits to hospitals and healthcare facilities. Our ethics is approved and our next step will be interviews with selected clinical staff and others to understand how the design of their working areas assists or impedes the delivery of care. Our research has now further expanded to look at how COVID-19 is impacting on the use of these spaces and how this could affect the future design of entrance and exit areas in hospitals and other healthcare facilities. We are pursuing biophilic, salutogenic and eudemonic approaches to the design of these essential facility spaces. Practical outcomes will include design suggestions for achieving improved workflows while providing patient friendly and supportive environments for all users.

We recorded our presentation and you can access it from the YouTube link below. Further seminars will be held over the next couple of months. Information regarding these free events, including how to enrol, will be posted on the Australian Health Design Council LinkedIn group and tweeted when available. Follow us via the link below.

So, please stand by for future updates on our exciting research project and for other projects to be conducted by the QUT Design Lab and in particular the projects arising from the HEAL project. HEAL is the Health Excellence Accelerator Lab and is based in the Faculty of the the Creative Industries at QUT.

More information about both of these initiatives is available in the video or from the URL shown above. We welcome all your comments and input.