Healthcare Areas

Benefits

• Greenery in and around nursing homes, hospitals and other clinics has a positive effect on the recovery capacity and state of mind of patients and the general well-being of patients, employees and visitors.
• Employees and volunteers like to work for an employer in a pleasant green environment. A nursing home saw the number of volunteers triple due to a green design.
• A view of greenery from the hospital room contributes to a shorter stay (almost a day).
• Patients give less negative feedback to healthcare staff in a green environment.

Maintenance

• The Living Public Space and a low-maintenance outdoor space go well together. This starts with a well-thought-out design and a good construction, in which the green professional, (landscape) architect and client sit around the table together in a timely manner.
• There is a perennial assortment available that grows quickly densely, suppresses weed growth and sprouts again after mowing. Perennials are resistant to heat, drought or wet conditions.

Biodiversity

• An outdoor space with varied planting can make an important contribution to biodiversity.
• Experiencing seasonality and seeing birds, butterflies, flowers and recognizable animals and plants is often a welcome distraction for patients. It can also bring back memories.

Flowers & Food

• The outdoor area can be used for growing unsprayed food and flowers for personal use.
• Being involved in vegetable garden activities has a positive effect on the well-being of residents or patients. Picking flowers or fruit is a fun joint activity for young and old. By applying targeted assortment, memories of the past can be evoked.

Water

• Green roofs on large buildings, such as hospitals, help to smooth out precipitation peaks and reduce flooding by retaining part of the precipitation and slowing down the rest.
• The presence of water has a calming effect.

Temperature

• Many hospitals are located in built-up areas where it is usually warmer than outside. Trees provide natural shade and cooling. Roof and façade greenery also reduces the heating of the buildings. Look for examples in the manual The Living Building.
• Large green areas around health institutions can contribute to a more pleasant climate in the wider area.
• More greenery contributes to less heat stress for patients and staff. Heat stress is especially dangerous for the elderly, babies, pregnant women and the chronically ill. They are vulnerable, because they are less able to regulate their body temperature. During heat waves, forty extra people die every day in the Netherlands.
• Trees that provide shade in parking lots reduce the evaporation of fuel from the fuel tank and the energy consumption of the car’s air conditioning. They also limit the heating of the car interior. Visitors and staff experience less heat stress.

Air Quality

• Dense planting can help protect locations where vulnerable people reside, such as hospitals or retirement homes, from pollution from traffic and industry. It is important to have a good air flow with the environment.
• Patients who received their chemotherapy in a green chemo garden rated the space as more comfortable than patients who did so in the hospital. For example, they find the temperature and air quality better.

Smell

• In a green outdoor space, you don’t smell the well-known ‘hospital smell’.
• Scents stimulate our memories.
• For blind and visually impaired patients, scented plants can be used in addition to tactile plants to experience the greenery.

Appearance

• A view of greenery has a stress-reducing effect on patients and staff.
• It shortens the period of admission to hospitals. A view of green facades, walls or roofs also has this effect.
• A green environment is attractive and provides variety that distracts from pain and stress. It is important to be able to experience the season when it comes to outdoor greenery. To do this, it is good to use interesting plants all year round.
• Especially expressive and cheerful colours are easy to distinguish from the hospital room.

Noise

• Greenery can help to make noise pollution from traffic or industry less of a nuisance.
• Hearing sounds of nature that are pleasant to us has a stress-reducing effect. Patients who, in addition to seeing nature, also hear nature sounds, are better able to cope with pain.

Relaxation

• A green environment is calming and people recover faster from stress. In places in healthcare where relaxation is important, such as in waiting and treatment rooms, indoor greenery can contribute a lot to reducing stress. Roof gardens can also be used for this purpose.
• Experience shows that stress relief is the most important benefit of healing outdoor spaces for patients with a psychiatric disorder.
• People experience less pain. Patients use up to 30% less painkillers when they stay in a green environment.
• A visit to a green space improves the state of mind of children undergoing treatment in a hospital.

Socialisation

• Create green meeting places where it is pleasant to stay for patients, visitors and staff. With a choice to be able to sit in the sun or in the shade. And also places where you can eat or drink something and where there is something to see in the immediate vicinity (flowers, animals, water).
• A green outdoor space contributes to a better social climate. In green-designed hospitals, social support for the patients staying there grows. In green areas, conversations between healthcare providers and patients often go better. People are also more open to the care that they receive and are more likely to ask for help.

Productivity

• Greenery in the workplace leads to greater satisfaction with the workplace.
• Greenery in the working environment improves employees’ ability to concentrate.

Movement & Play

• In a green environment, rehabilitation processes run better. Patients experience less tension and more pleasure when moving in the green.
• If the environment is greener, and therefore more attractive, people will go outside more and be more active. This also applies to the very elderly and ambulatory.
• Greenery in the area offers space for a stroll for users to relax and get away from it all.

Safety

• People with walking difficulties tend to choose accessible and safe walking routes. When it comes to pavements, it makes sense for this target group to choose materials that are wheelchair-friendly, become less slippery in the rain or are more stable with less potholes.