Insights
Jan 9, 2025 _ insights
Pediatric Healthcare Environments: Embrace the Whole Child
Children don’t walk into healthcare spaces alone.
Embracing the whole child—from toddler to teen and beyond—means surrounding them (and their adults) in support. More than treating illness, pediatric health systems work to build long-term well-being for children at all stages of their cognitive and physical development. This means considering four interconnected facets that impact the experience they have when they arrive for care.
Convenience helps lower a barrier. Access to urgent care and ambulatory centers help pediatric patients get the treatment they need close to home. Co-locating specialties (including things like social and legal resources) can help further support families. Providing flexible clinics that can be used by multiple departments (dermatology one day, allergy the next) helps expand services at a single site. Utilizing a system of clinical prototypes—adaptable to site, community, staff, and patient needs—can help health systems meet their goals for growth, standardization, equity, and brand experience. As telehealth continues to evolve, it offers opportunities for patient families and practitioners to access and learn from healthcare specialists around the world.
As organizations dedicated to improving children’s health, it’s critical for pediatric health systems to use their facilities to help generate good health. Two ways to accomplish this include:
- Salutogenic (health-generating) strategies to foster individual resilience and decrease stress. These strategies include biophilic design elements that connect to nature (through things like views, shapes, forms, textures and lighting) but also elements that help trigger relaxation responses, a sense of shelter and protection, and a sense of empowerment.
- Sustainable, resilient facility design can positively impact children’s health at an individual, community, and global level. Strategies can also address electrification, air quality, and opportunities for movement. They can include simplifying material palettes to reduce potential chemicals of concern or selecting materials that eliminate the use of hazardous substances in their production.
Anticipating a moment of joy can change the trajectory of a child’s healthcare experience. This can mean providing opportunities and amenities for children and families to safely explore, play, connect to nature, and experience moments of wonder. When designing a space, consider neurodivergency and the range of sensory needs children have. These include sight and touch as well as self-soothing behaviors like pacing or rocking. Anticipating these needs can help children (and the adults who accompany them) feel calm, comfortable and ready to engage with healthcare teams.
Self-efficacy (“I can”) is a salutogenic strategy and a critical part of enhancing confidence and well-being. The ability to navigate facilities, orient, and transition to destinations helps restore a sense of control. When children arrive in healthcare spaces, they are accompanied by adults, but often a wheelchair or IV pole too. Space to pull over and take off coats lets people catch their breath. Color, lighting, and graphic cues can help people intuitively find where they need to go, which decreases stress.
Beyond public lobbies and corridors, the journey to care within clinical spaces should be thoughtfully considered so it feels less scary. Separating pathways for patients and providers and strategically placing medical equipment in treatment and exam rooms can help. Creating zones within care rooms for staff to work makes interactions easier and more efficient. Pediatric patients often visit multiple specialties. Keeping exam room layouts consistent across facilities helps create continuity and a sense of familiarity for pediatric patients.
Architecture and design can’t cure disease, but it can help pediatric patients and their families feel like they’re in good hands when they receive care. Across campus, building, and space types, these four facets—access, well-being, empathy, and the journey— help ease the journey, uplift the spirit, connect to nature, foster empowerment, and remove barriers to good health.
Read our pediatric brochure here.
See examples of our pediatric projects here, here, here and here
Explore more of our healthcare work here.
Matt Scott, AIA, ACHA, LEED AP BD+C is an associate at GBBN and a board-certified healthcare architect. Adept at balancing multiple perspectives, Matt works closely with healthcare administrators as well as nurses, doctors, and patients, to understand their needs and create supportive, healing spaces that positively impact the experience of healthcare. By understanding the emotional, behavioral, and physical development of pediatric patients, Matt helps teams deliver empathetic spaces that support the needs of children, families, and staff.
