How Design Impacts Patients.

This article reports that a study, getting under way this month in Canada, is expected to determine the impact of hospital design on staff efficiency and staff and patient satisfaction. Results will provide architects and developers with a basis for hospital renovations and design standards. Using palm pilote with a time and motion software package specifically designed for the study, observers will "shadow" a volunteer group of 10 nurses, several doctors and 60 breast cancer patients receiving adjuvant therapy over a one-week period at existing cancer facilities of Canada's Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga, Ontario.