The best healing environment possible

When Valerie Laidley-Price was hospitalized after a double mastectomy, getting better was the only thing on her mind. “I just wanted to sleep, heal, and get back to my home and my life as quickly as possible.”

Unfortunately, sleep and privacy were not always in the cards. Like most patients at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), Laidley-Price was placed in a four-bedded room, sharing space with three other patients, their caregivers and their families.

“For my first two nights I didn’t sleep a wink,” Laidley-Price recalls. “Between the comings-and-goings of nurses and orderlies and the sound of my roommates, there was rarely a moment of silence.” Privacy was also a concern, since two of Laidley-Price’s roommates were men. “I’d just had breast cancer surgery: having to worry about modesty was the last thing I needed.” She adds, “We have the finest doctors and nurses in the world working here, but the environment is difficult for everyone.”

From a 50-bed ward to a four-bed room

As imperfect as Price’s four-bedded experience might have been, we’ve come a long way from the typical patient experience of the nineteenth century. When the Royal Victoria Hospital opened its doors in 1894, patients were hospitalized in long wards without even a curtain between beds. Nurses and doctors moved from patient to patient, and infections were so common that the mortality rate could be as high as 50 per cent.

As medical science yielded greater insight into how diseases spread, efforts were made to place partitions around the sickest patients, to sterilize equipment and to create a more controlled and sanitary environment. By the 1970s, the four-bedded room had become the standard, looking much like the room where Laidley-Price spent her hospitalization.

One patient, a host of advantages

Hospital design has undergone a revolution as great as the one that created four-bedded rooms out of 50-patient wards. These days, state-of-the-art hospitals have just one kind of patient room: the single.

With just one bed per room, gone are the days of duelling intravenous poles and competing conversations. Instead, patients and their loved ones benefit from privacy, quiet, confidentiality and comfort.

Putting patient safety first

Single patient rooms aren’t just about creating a more pleasant environment for patients: research shows that a well-designed single room can limit the spread of disease.

“The patient’s room can be a powerful tool against the spread of infection in a hospital,” says Dr. Vivian Loo, Chief of Microbiology at the MUHC. Features such as hand-washing stations just inside the entrance, supercharged ventilation systems, easy-to-clean, non-porous surfaces and private bathrooms help reduce dangerous hospital-acquired infections such as MRSA and C-difficile.

A comfortable patient is a patient who recovers faster

In addition to limiting the spread of infection, research shows that the patient environment has a tremendous impact on recovery. Natural light, soothing colours and works of art, positive distractions like TV and the Internet, and a lack of unpleasant sounds have been shown to reduce stress and accelerate recovery. Support from family and friends is also invaluable, so a welcoming environment for visitors is essential.

Staff can also perform better when their environment is working with them rather than against them. Ergonomically-designed rooms reduce unnecessary movements and space for the latest technologies means caregivers have every tool they need within arms’ reach. Diagnostic equipment can be brought right to the bedside, meaning patients don’t need to be moved to a separate area every time they need a test. Since every doctor at the MUHC is also a researcher and teacher, the new rooms will also allow students and caregivers to discuss a patient’s condition without concerns about confidentiality.

The new MUHC: 100 per cent single-patient rooms

Our patients are our number-one priority. Therefore, at the Glen, Mountain and Lachine campuses of the new MUHC, our patients will all benefit from a single-patient room and the best healing environment possible.

For Laidley-Price, this is music to her ears. “If I do end up back in the hospital in the future, a modern, single room would make a world of difference. We’ve waited a long time for new hospitals: let’s get started!”