
This blog explores how the environment of care influences the patient's experience and staff well-being, with a focus on how sound, visual atmosphere, pacing, and sensory load shape healing and outcomes in healthcare settings. Topics include patient safety and satisfaction, hospital noise, nurse wellness, HCAHPS, sleep, and much more. Our goal is to share practical insights to help you create environments that heal.
October 31, 2014
At the Beryl Institute Roundtable in Seattle, WA, this week, kindness dominated discussions about caregiver resilience in pursuit of the optimal patient experience. While the discussion started by looking at
Read more >October 10, 2014
I keep coming back to the patient experience as being elusive, difficult to nail down, and more difficult to actually make happen and control. Added to that is the role
Read more >October 3, 2014
While Planetree is now broadly known, its earliest roots in the patient experience movement came long before our current era of HCAHPS. Founded in 1978, Planetree introduced the world to
Read more >September 12, 2014
There are many ways to learn. However, the ultimate goal of all teaching is to transfer information from teacher to students so completely that what is learned cannot be unlearned.
Read more >August 22, 2014
I found the term “nocturnal rumination” in a recent study on insomnia in palliative care patients in the ICU. Basically, it’s obsessive thinking when the lights go out. The study
Read more >July 11, 2014
I have written many times about the value of music and nature at the bedside and how it impacts the patient experience. However, I am not sure the nature of
Read more >June 20, 2014
Those who know and love me often point to repetition in my blog posts. I’m proud to say that it’s true. Because the healthcare topics I write about are far
Read more >May 30, 2014
2 + 2 will always = 4. But, two people who are dealing with cancer, one a doctor and the other a patient, what do they equal? A healing relationship
Read more >May 23, 2014
As a musician for many years, the idea of “keeping time” was never mysterious — even as a young child. Keeping time meant staying in rhythm, in tempo. In some
Read more >May 8, 2014
Recently, The New England Journal of Medicine published an article about ICU-acquired weakness. The authors explore the physiological (neurological) outcomes of having an critical illness, being administered strong medications, being intubated, and otherwise
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