The article on the Role of the physical Environment in the hospital of the 21st Century is a case study of U.S hospitals authored by Roger, Quan, Zimring, Joseph and Choudhary. This work is an attempt to portray the daunting physical conditions in the hospitals that need to be addressed through an improved hospital design. According to the article, medical flaws and hospital –acquired illness are the leading causes of death in America (Zimring, C pp 1). In fact, these conditions are more serious than breast cancer or AIDS. The authors start by giving background information of the US health care. This case study provides a good roadmap for the present and the future health care system. In addition, the study asserts the need for vigorous research in developing health care design. This ensures that the hospitals’ physical environment is linked to the patients and staff well being. Moreover, increased research in public health facilitates the movement toward evidence based design.
The report also achieves in exploring the state of science that relates the attributes of the physical setting to patients and staff effects. This is a strong work based on the fact that the researchers are experienced personnel in the field of research from Texas A & M University and Georgia Tech. The study is also authentic because it incorporates 600 studies that establish how hospital design does affect clinical outcomes. Much of the studies reinforce the idea that improving physical setting in the hospitals is of great importance in determining the outcome of the patients and the staff. It is also a systematic study that presents the procedures and results in an organized way.
Although this work makes great contributions to the field of public health, it has a major weakness in analyzing the results. The authors should have summarized the results by use of figures. Furthermore, the study fails to elaborate how the evidence based design can be developed; it is merely an illustration of what can be done and not how it can be done. However, this is a strong case study for any person working in the public health care, because it helps one understand that the existing physical conditions negatively affect the patients and the staff.
Work cited
Zimring, C. The Role of Physical Environment in the Hospital of the 21st century: A once-in -a life time opportunity. Retrieved on 2nd November, 2010. From:< http://www.rwjf.org/files/publications/other/RoleofthePhysicalEnvironment.pdf>,2004
