Hospitals and family friendly facilities

As I watched this lady spread the clothes in the lawn of a teaching hospital, I suddenly realized that for five hundred patients welcomed to the hospital for treatment, there are several missing facilities in the campus. 

In most hospitals, I have visited, the facilities to share family meals, place for rest or sleep, furnished waiting room facilities outside intensive care or operating theatre, wash areas, drinking water, etc. are far from satisfactory. Scores of relatives sleep on the floor outside the wards or intensive care rooms. There may be outsourced canteens to have meals, but a hospital which is also a place of hospitality does not convey this ethos generally.

The National Acrreditation Board for Hospitals, prescribe some minimum public facilities in hospitals, but even the assessors while certifying the hospitals for accreditation would often offer concession to the hospitals if common facilities are less than optimum. A hospital architect mentioned to me from his experience with hospitals, that the plan submitted for approval to the regulatory authorities will contain provisions for public utility service, but they are neither built or even if built, the space will be used for other purposes after the building completion certificate is obtained.

People come to hospital when they are physically, emotionally  and economically under stress. They love the garden spaces, shades under trees, sitting areas around canteen or the waiting lounges outside the operation theatre and intensive care. They are emotional buffers when they are in distress.

Most hospitals need to become family centric, while offering services at the out patient and in patient areas, as in our culture in India, relatives will accompany patients to the hospital and stay with patients till he can go back home. 

Some hospitals have begun hospitality services to take care the needs of families and relatives. A hospital I know offer night stay for relatives at nominal charges in common rooms for men and women separately. Since this was started, the doctors mentioned that families adjusted better and were more involved in the care of the patient.

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)