By Healthcare Facilities Today

According to an article on the Healthcare Design magazine website, studies have shown that contact with the natural environment can alleviate stress, relax blood pressure, and even reduce the need for pain medication. Many designers strive to organize outpatient cancer centers around natural vistas to take advantage of these natural healing qualities.

The natural world offers a varied, therapeutic respite from the repetitive. often depressing and exhaustive experiences of cancer outpatients in particular. But in urban areas—or on densely developed hospital campuses—the available vistas may be the side of a building, the air handling units on a rooftop, or a sea of parked cars, the article said.

Four cancer centers in densely developed settings were developed with a focus on making patients and staff feel as if they’re close to the natural world. Approaches included creating miniature gardens, discreetly screening unattractive views, taking advantage of roofscapes, engaging distant glimpses of the landscape, and making connections with nature.

The Healthcare Design article details the steps taken by the AtlantiCare Oncology Institute in Egg Harbor Township, N.J.; the Pocono Medical Center: Dale and Frances Hughes Cancer Center in East Stroudsburg, Penn.; the SUNY Upstate Medical University Cancer Center in Syracuse, N.Y.; and the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System: Monter Cancer Center in Hyde Park, N.Y., to bring nature to city-bound cancer patients.

Read the article and view the image gallery.