If our healthcare system is going to have to change drastically in the next couple of years, then why shouldn’t the design of healthcare facilities change along with it?

Let’s take our regulatory agencies, for example, a system that is designed to insure the safety of the design of facilities. What if a part of the regulatory code was to include items that helped the patient recover?  Take for instance sinks. Hand washing sinks are required. What if design elements that help children learn and partake in healthy activities while they recover were required as well?  What if patient floors were designed to look onto activity centers where children could go to and partake in different kinds of physical and educational activities vs. nurse stations or hallways?  Nurses are everywhere and the nurse station as we know it is changing everyday as technology changes.  If children had a line of site to an activity center, this would then help stimulate emotion and physical healing which could then extend to the recovery at home.

Sixteen percent of children 6-19 years old are overweight or obese.  This number has tripled since 1980; another 15 are considered at risk of becoming overweight according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Tripled since 1980, change is necessary here. Childhood obesity has been linked to several chronic conditions such as heart disease, stroke, asthma, and some forms of cancer (don’t forget the cost associated with these, an upwards of 14 billion dollars a year)….to the children who are at risk or are already dealing with this health problem, how can we help?  What if school systems, parents and healthcare facilities partnered?  I see great things happening in children’s healthcare facilities when parents and the hospital collaborate. They become a powerful force to bring about change, and just think how powerful it could be if schools partnered in the effort to raise the bar of preventative medicine for children.

If the reform is already in effect, we should be taking it upon ourselves to do our part as well. Our children are our future, we need to be bold, and make it our duty to bring about positive change in their future.