Healthcare Design - April 2015 - 8

MONITOR
Edited by Anne DiNardo

with Shepley Bulfinch (Boston), which was the architect of
record.
"Most of the data came from ophthalmologists and
their research. We took their data and applied it to the built
environment," Wisniewski says. "As you age, you need
more light to determine contrast, and yet in most patient
rooms, the lighting
in the room (other
than the exam light
over the bed) doesn't
provide enough light
to adequately see the

Research on the effects of aging on
vision and hearing shaped the
design of Yale-New Haven Hospital's
Center for Restorative Care.

Evidence-based design research is largely associated
with aspects of the built environment that support satisfaction and outcomes of the general patient population.
But little information exists that's tied to the very specific
segment of the population age 65 and up.
That's what the design team behind Yale-New Haven
Hospital's new Center for Restorative Care discovered
when digging into available findings to help shape the
senior-centered unit.
Previously housed on an older med/surg patient
floor of the New Haven, Conn., hospital, the center was
moved to a renovated floor that matches thoughtful
architecture and signage with clinical care to support older patients. Opened in October 2014, the unit
provides care to inpatients 65 and older, offering
a team of specially trained physicians, nurses,
physical and occupational therapists, social
workers, nutritionists, and care coordinators that
ensures that patients remain as functional as possible during their stay.
While there wasn't a lot of design-specific
information available regarding seniors, plenty of
researchers had explored the effects of aging in
other ways. For example, says James Wisniewski,
senior associate at Michael Graves Architecture &
Design (MGA&D; Princeton, N.J.), there was much
to learn about how eyesight and vision is affected
by age. MGA&D served as the interior design
architect and collaborated on the overall design
8

HCDmagazine.com 04.15

shortcomings in signage at the existing location. Research
on how the unit design is performing is being conducted to
be shared in the future.-Jennifer Kovacs Silvis
Yale-New Haven
Hospital's geriatricspecific unit, the Center
for Restorative Care,
in New Haven, Conn.,
uses design solutions for
lighting, acoustics, and
signage to better support
its patients who are age
65 and up.

JEFFREY TOTARO

SENSES AND
SENSIBILITY

transition between
patient room flooring
and the patient toilet room flooring, contributing to increased
falls by seniors in the toileting process."
The team found in its research that as the eye ages, the
cornea begins to yellow and cause colors to fade to a monochromatic beige, a fact that placed lighting at the top of the
project priority list. "We incorporated lighting fixtures with
brighter footcandles in order to allow seniors to see the full
spectrum of color. We used brighter colors and incorporated
clear color contrast at flooring transitions," Wisniewski says.
Creating the right acoustics was also important in the
unit design. For example, carpet was chosen for patient
corridors to reduce the traditional din heard outside patient
room walls, but it was completed with a pattern that
patients and their physical therapists could use as walking
milestones to encourage exercise and, hopefully, reduce
lengths of stay.
Clear wayfinding was also a hallmark of the program, with
the designers consulting clinical staff to understand what
information was important to display and where there were

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Healthcare Design - April 2015

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