Stroke Patients’ Experiences in an Adaptive Healing Room in a Stroke Rehabilitation Unit

Abstract

Objectives: This study evaluated the user experiences (UX) of stroke patients residing in the adaptive healing room (AHR) and compared them to the UX of patients residing in standard private rooms (SPRs). Background: Healing environments in healthcare settings can promote patients’ healing processes, outcomes, and psychological well-being. The AHR was designed as a healing environment for stroke patients and has been previously evaluated in laboratory settings. This study was the first to evaluate it in its intended context—a stroke rehabilitation unit. Methods: The UX of 10 patients residing in the AHR and 15 patients residing in SPRs were collected via structured interviews with a set of open-ended questions and analyzed using quantitative and qualitative methods. Results: The AHR design features (orientation screen, skylight, and nature view) were rated positively by most patients. The skylight emerged as the least favorable. Responses to open-ended questions revealed that UX may be further improved if patients have more control over some of the settings (e.g., light intensity and nature views), and if the system allowed for more stimulation for patients at later stages of their recovery. Additionally, the results suggest that patients in the AHR have better UX than patients in the SPRs. Conclusion: The AHR has the potential to improve UX in the stroke rehabilitation unit. Patient feedback can be used to refine the AHR before carrying out clinical trials to assess the effect of the AHR on patient outcomes (e.g., sleep, mood, and length of stay) and stroke recovery.

Built environments for inpatient stroke rehabilitation services and care: a systematic literature review

“…(see online supplemental file 7). We elected not to include one article 24 in the narrative synthesis as it was assessed as having very low methodological quality (MMAT=0; see table 2 and online supplemental file 7).…”

Social support and sleep quality in patients with stroke: The mediating roles of depression and anxiety symptoms

“…The reasons for poor sleep quality in people with stroke are varied and may be complex. Some of the known risk factors include sociodemographic factors (e.g., older age, female and lower educational status) (McDermott et al, 2018), lifestyle (e.g., alcohol use, smoking and inadequate physical activity) (Sarfo et al, 2017; Xiaolin Gu, 2017), environmental factors (e.g., weather, light and odours) (Arbel et al, 2020), physiologic factors (e.g., habitual snoring, regional neurodegeneration, stroke severity, lesion location, stroke type and fatigue) (Fisse et al, 2017; Gottlieb et al, 2020), co‐morbid diseases (e.g., diabetes mellitus, hypertension, coronary artery disease and cardiac arrhythmias) (Karaca, 2016) and psychosocial factors (e.g., anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms and stress) (Suh et al, 2014). Amongst these factors affecting sleep quality, demographic characteristics, physiologic factors, certain environmental factors and co‐morbid diseases are not easily altered although these factors are very important.…”

Study on value-based design of healthcare facilities: Based on review of the literature in the USA and Japan

“…As one of the main means of reducing medical costs, the USA has paid great attention to research that can shorten the length of stay. The results published in HERD articles suggest that factors that can shorten the length of stay include sunlight (54), views of nature (54), patient-centered model of care (55), acute care unit for the elderly (56), adaptive healing room (57), expedient bariatric beds (58), therapeutic design (59), and proximal to the ward entrance (60,61). Concentration or decentralization of nurse stations has no significant effect on the average length of stay (62,63).…”