Showing posts with label bathrooms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bathrooms. Show all posts

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Who Builds These Things Anyway?

One of the greatest truisms that I have encountered in my medical career (palliative or not), is the fact that most hospitals are designed by people who have never been a patient, much less seen one. Neither did they ask a doctor or a nurse. 
A particular grievance that I have is the design of bathrooms. Most hospital bathrooms that I have encountered are made small (think the smallest airline bathroom you've ever seen) and would never fit anyone with a walker, cane, wheelchair, much less a person of "size".
If there is a bathroom sink... it is the size of a small finger bowl and has - of all things - foot pedals to work it. Please remember your last hospital visit and what you wore on your feet.
Secondly, from a more palliative standpoint, there are no areas in which talking with families in privacy is possible. This past week, I held family meetings about serious end of life issues in a hallway, staff lounge, and at the elevator lobby. There needs to be a movement to provide private spaces for the talk that is necessary to discuss all aspects of a person's medical care.