​​Photo credit: Concept renderings of the new hospital by Montgomery Sisam Architects

By: Michelle Rowe-Jardine, Communications Coordinator, West Park Healthcare Centre

Improving the patient experience can go beyond the walls of a hospital, as mounting research suggests access to green space can play an important role in improving mood and contribute to positive health outcomes.

Some studies have suggested that access to green space can offer a calming, therapeutic environment that can decrease stress, anxiety, and pain (either real or perceived).

West Park Healthcare Centre recognizes that nature can be a key component in meeting the needs of patients and has undertaken a post-occupancy evaluation (POE) to gain valuable information, including about how outdoor spaces affect patient experience. Insight gathered from the POE is being used to ensure the new hospital, slated to open in 2023, will meet all users' needs across all 27 acres of the property.

The POE consists of a pre- and post-occupancy phase, and participants in the hospital's outdoor spaces survey were interviewed to discuss their experience. Seventy-four participants, including 24 inpatients, 15 outpatients, 11 family members, 23 staff members, and one volunteer, took part in the interviews.

Researchers at West Park then analyzed the information to identify three main themes that were then published in the Health Environments Research & Design Journal. The paper, titled Hospital outdoor spaces: User experience and implications for design, found "outdoor space benefits healing by helping patients to focus on life beyond their illness." The paper notes that green space can help​ give patients a sense of autonomy and help them connect with everyday life.

"So coming in to a place, where I can get out of a room and into a park setting, it lifts the spirits," one patient said during the interview.

The second theme focuses on the design of healthcare spaces that facilitate patients' access to the outdoors to benefit healing. This can include ensuring accessibility needs are met so everyone can explore these spaces, as well as what design elements supported patients' experience with green space. Fresh air, sunlight, trees, plants, and flowers were all highlighted as positive elements.

The final theme centred on how therapy programming outdoors can promote healing and recovery. Some patients and staff reported that outdoor spaces provide a motivating environment for therapy where patients are more engaged and see increased improvement.

Lee Verweel, Manager of Research and Innovation at West Park and one of the authors of the paper, says much of the research around green space in health care focuses on acute-care settings, rather than post-acute care or rehabilitation.

He says for many Complex Continuing Care patients – particularly those who have been at West Park for years – this isn't just a facility, it's their home.

"As we were starting to discuss it, we were realizing there's quite a bit of power in the nature piece of the POE, because people were talking about how it makes them … experience things outside of their illness, and experience things outside of a healthcare setting. It made them feel more like a person."

Access to green space is about "bringing a different experience to healthcare," he says.

West Park is using these findings to transform healthcare architecture in its new hospital. The facility will highlight nature's role in providing patients exemplary care. When it opens, the hospital will feature outdoor therapy courtyards, sensory gardens, and a network of multi-surface paths.

Patients at West Park have complex conditions, such as advanced brain injury, which can cause them to feel segregated from society. West Park will be making its West Lawn open to the public to help foster connection between patients and the community via shared space. Patients will have access to more than 10,000 sq. ft. of outdoor space where they can enjoy nature, gather with family and friends, and gain practice with the everyday experiences they will have when moving around their own communities, such as wheelchair transfers and navigating different terrains. The grounds will have 28 interconnected gardens, shady areas, and therapeutic trails.

The hospital itself will contain large terraces that will extend from every floor, each containing large planters and enough space for therapeutic exercise.

Patients can have different abilities with respect to accessing some of these green spaces year-round, so each of the private rooms in the new hospital will feature a large window overlooking the campus. Research has shown that even viewing nature from indoors can have positive effects on healing.