The importance of adding therapeutic outdoor spaces to healthcare campuses has been gaining popularity for awhile, according to an article on the Healthcare Design magazine. While inviting building entries, healing gardens, walking trails, and vegetable gardens—can lead to better patient health, these elements can provide preventive health benefits, too, according to blogger Samantha Roffe.
"New reimbursement models have created a shift of focus from treating illness to maintaining and improving health, so it’s an appropriate time to re-evaluate how site development of a healthcare campus can contribute to a proactive wellness strategy. The basic strategy of a flexible, efficient, and community-facing campus should give the landscape renewed relevance and purpose, providing multiple values and benefits," Roffe wrote.
Development of a “total health” environment is one way of supporting this shift, Roffe said. It would require an integrated, multiuse setting that allows medical facilities and campuses to become a hub for healthy community activities.
"In turn, such programs encourage interaction with community members, promoting and supporting an educational message of wellness. In addition, access to other functions and services, such as a farmers market or an exercise path, can be just as valuable to building the groundwork for a healthy lifestyle," Roffe wrote.
Read the blog.
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