The Evidence-based NHS Infrastructure

This week the studies have focused on researching Evidence-based Design and partly on administration - data sharing agreements and the like.

Derrived from Evidence-based Medicine, Evidence-based Design (EBD) focuses on the impact of the design of the infrastructure and how it interacts with the patient, the staff and technology. It describes how the physical design of health care environments can improve patient and staff satisfaction, employee retention, quality of care, and patient and staff safety (1).

The origins of EBD can be traced back to 'View through a window may influence recovery from surgery' (2). Focusing purely on the effects of the a single aspect of the estate infrastructure - a window - on recovery, Ulrich was able to determine a positive effect on post-operative surgical patients when recovering in view of natural scene.

Since then, EBD has developed significantly and is seen as a central tenet of the architecture of new healthcare facilities. This is important as these facilities will be with the NHS for many decades to come (3).

The data sharing agreement is the last step in providing access to millions of National Learning and Reporting System records from the last 5 years to analyse to what extent the estate infrastructure played, directly or latently, in patient safety incidents.

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1. Clancy, Carolyn M. “Designing for Safety: Evidence-Based Design and Hospitals.” American Journal of Medical Quality 23, no. 1 (January 2008): 66–69. https://doi.org/10.1177/1062860607311034.

2. Ulrich, Roger. “View Through a Window May Influence Recovery from Surgery.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 224 (May 1, 1984): 420–21. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.6143402.

3. Henriksen, Kerm, Sandi Isaacson, Blair L. Sadler, and Craig M. Zimring. “The Role of the Physical Environment in Crossing the Quality Chasm.” The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety 33, no. 11 (November 2007): 68–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1553-7250(07)33114-0.