Landscapes can bring a lot of positivity to people.
The physical benefits of getting outside in nature are obvious, but there are also social, emotional, spiritual, and psychological benefits.
This is what makes gardens amazing additions to hospitals and healthcare facilities in Greater Chicago. They can offer so many advantages to their patients, staff, and visitors.
In fact, multiple studies have discovered that spending just 3 to 5 minutes looking at trees, plants, flowers, or water can not only reduce anger, uneasiness, stress, and pain, but also increase relaxation and calmness.
Well-maintained landscapes can turn healthcare facilities from noisy, disorienting mazes that can increase anxiety into places that help promote better healing.
But figuring out what elements healing landscape designs should include to ensure they do their jobs can be tough for any property manager to understand.
Let’s look at landscaping for hospitals and how it can benefit your Greater Chicago healthcare facility, as well as what services these spaces need to deliver the best outcomes.
Nature and outdoor elements are really powerful healing forces, making them great additions to any healing environment. People of every age and background can react positively to greenery, and this can have an overall great effect on someone’s health – no matter what their physical ailment is.
In fact, more than two-thirds of people say they choose a natural setting to retreat to when they are stressed out, according to Marcus and Barnes researchers. And 95% of those who spent time outside report improved moods. They went from depressed or stressed to calm or balanced.
These reasons make healing landscape designs powerful elements of hospital environments.
When someone is in the healthcare facility, it usually involves some levels of discomfort, uneasiness, or pain.
In addition to experiencing physical symptoms, a visit to a hospital can be mentally exhausting because patients and their families generally worry more – whether they are just in for a health condition checkup, being prepped for a surgery, are awaiting test results, or are in recovery.
Landscaping for hospitals can captivate patient and family attention. When a person can see nature or experience garden elements, they can feel a reduction in discomfort and even see some results instantly, such as a lowering of blood pressure.
In fact, Florida Health says people who spent more time among trees had lower blood pressure, lower cortisol levels, and a lower pulse than people who spent more time indoors or in city areas.
Today’s world is busy; there are distractions all around us fighting for our attention, and they can all induce stress. In a hospital, this impact can be amplified because the environment itself can bring anxiety.
Outdoor amenities for hospitals can counter those negative feelings. By being inherently engrossing, nature relaxes the human brain since eit doesn’t have to work double time to enjoy it. This very act reduces mental fatigue.
A tree takes time to grow; so do plants. Flowers don’t bloom overnight. Every plant starts as a seed and has levels of growth before revealing its biggest bloom show.
The fact that nature showcases the embodiment of having patience and care for a positive end result is a big tie to why healing landscape designs are important.
Plants symbolize steady, progressive growth, which is soothing to anyone who visits your Greater Chicago healthcare facility.
Now that we know what landscaping for healthcare facilities can do for your employees, patients, their families, and visitors, it’s important to learn what the best healing spaces include and how they can be designed for maximum benefit.
Here are some of the must-include items in hospital commercial landscape maintenance in Greater Chicago.
Greenery is important in landscaping for hospitals, particularly where your healthcare facility is located in a city’s concrete jungle. The goal is to give hospital patients, employees, and visitors a natural escape.
Bring natural materials, such as trees, shrubs, flowers, ornamental grasses, water, and even rocks and boulders, into your healthcare landscape. Healing landscape experts recommend you opt to create a balance of 70% plants and 30% walkways and concrete elements.
Landscaping for healthcare facilities must provide people with options to maximize their comfort. This means creating multiple options based on a patient's specific needs. For instance, shade is important, but having some access to sunlight can provide balance.
If you’re located in a windy area of Greater Chicago, provide screening to enhance comfort.
Also, don’t forget to provide places for people to rest outdoors. To maximize comfort, pick garden seats with backs and arms to assist patients who may need help rising from seated positions.
Make sure smoking areas are placed away from healing gardens so as not to bother patients and to let nature’s fragrances prevail.
Healing landscape designs should also target multiple senses.
Soften traffic noises with tree and shrub screens. Don’t place a tranquil garden for patients and visitors near loud air-conditioning units, helicopter pads, or delivery areas. Add additional calming elements by using water features and ornamental grasses that add movement.
Next, bring in visual and audible elements by adding native plants that can draw in butterflies and birds. Flowers also bring bright colors and amazing fragrances throughout the year.
When choosing hardscapes, keep angles soft and round versus hard and angular. You don’t want patients getting lost in dead-end paths or complex mazes; instead think about curved walking paths with cozy areas for rest and reflection.
If possible, hospital landscape design should be visible from the main nurses’ station and have easy access for all visitors.
To do this, consider wider paths to ensure entry into the outdoor space and path hardscaping is easily navigable by wheelchairs, crutches, and other common healing tools.
Use clearly marked signs to guide people to and from the landscape space from lobbies, corridors, and patient rooms.
Once you create landscaping for your Greater Chicago healthcare facility, you must maintain it to ensure safety as a priority.
This means keeping roadways and signage clear with regular pruning, ensuring hardscapes don’t have trip and fall hazards, as well as keeping snow and ice cleared from roadways and drainage pathways.
Ensuring you have professional commercial landscape maintenance in Greater Chicago can help you keep your hospital landscape safe and secure for all visitors.
Healing is the most important service you provide as a hospital or healthcare facility. Anything you can do to increase the healing process can improve your healthcare facility in Greater Chicago.
Hospital landscape designs have proven to contribute to healing. As you read through our recommendations, you might find that your commercial property presents some challenges.
We know it can be overwhelming, and that’s why KD Landscape is here. We have extensive experience designing and installing commercial landscapes and would love to help provide solutions for your space.
KD Landscape would be happy to discuss some of these healthcare landscaping tips with you. Request a proposal today for your Greater Chicago property. We’ll review your options and budget together so you can make the best choice.