You've all most likely experienced a minor Healthcare issue in which you relied on a provider such as a hospital or clinic for care. Similarly, most of you have probably had to either endure a long line, emotionless physician, or the cramped conditions of a hospital bed (which might better be described as a cubicle). You might ask as you try and track down your health information, struggle to get more leg room in your bed, and adjust yourself to the bleak white box you're living in, how is this making me better? Planetree realizes the same problem and is acting fast. Planetree President Susan Frampton states: "The challenges facing healthcare providers today are extensive and profound. Beyond the day-to-day issues of budgets, staffing, and the increasingly demanding regulatory environment, healthcare professionals continue to struggle with the broader question of how to face these challenges while fulfilling their mission to provide high quality patient-centered care that optimizes health and recovery."

With problems on both ends, there is an obvious need for immediate improvement in the system, as patients and providers' frustrations begin to escalate. Frampton explains that, "Planetree and its affiliates are a part of the quarter century of commitment that honors the patient's perspective in healthcare. From its humble beginnings 25 years ago as a vision of a single patient, to its growing presence in over 80 hospitals, clinics, health resource centers and long-term care centers around the country, Planetree has truly changed the face of healthcare. By listening to what patients want in the health care environment and networking with Alliance members, Planetree affiliates have created some of the most healing hospitals in the country. They recognize that patients have a choice about where they will go for care, and that they are looking for more than just advanced technology and a good clinical outcome."

So what is there to healing? Give someone the drug and offer them a short stay in a stiff bed? That sounds more like a prison sentence. Planetree is about human beings caring for and serving other human beings. This involves not only the provision of nurturing, compassionate, personalized care to patients and families, but just as important, how staff members care for themselves and each other; and, how organizations create cultures which support and nurture their staff. Experiential staff retreats sensitize employees to the anatomy of a hospital experience from the patient's perspective and better enable them to holistically serve the patient. Healing partnerships between patients, family members and caregivers are encouraged by a care model which enables patients to be active participants in their health care.

In addition, Architectural Design Conducive to Health & Healing Planetree firmly believes that the physical environment is vital to the healing process of the patient. Facility design should include efficient layouts which support patient dignity and personhood. Domestic aesthetics, art and warm home-like, non-institutional designs which value humans, not just technology, are emphasized. Architectural barriers which inhibit patient control and privacy as well as interfere with family participation are removed. Awareness of the symbolic messages communicated by design is essential.

Designing and maintaining an uncluttered environment encourages patient mobility and a sense of "safe shelter." The design of Planetree facilities provide patients and families with spaces for both solitude and social activities, and include libraries, kitchens, lounges, activity rooms, chapels, and gardens. Comfortable space and accommodations are provided for families to stay overnight. Healing gardens, fountains, fish tanks and waterfalls are provided to connect patients, families and staff with the relaxing, invigorating, healing, and meditative aspects of nature.
It's just as essential to create healing environments for the staff as it is for patients. Physicians, nurses and ancillary staff are very much affected by their working environment. It is very hard to help patients heal and recover in inhospitable, cold and impersonal spaces. Lounges and sacred space for staff are an important component in the creation of a healing environment.

The Model's emphasis on patient and family education is carried out through strategies like customized information packets, collaborative care conferences and patient pathways. The open chart policy enables patients to read and write in their medical records. In the self-medication program patients who are able can keep their medications at the bedside and assume responsibility for their administration.
Planetree recognizes that the experience of illness has the potential to transform the patient. It can be a time of great personal growth for the patient as life goals and values are reevaluated, priorities are clarified, and inner resources are discovered. A variety of educational materials are made available to the patient, the family and the community through consumer-friendly health resource centers and satellite centers. The Planetree Classification System aids those in search of information as they review broad collections of medical texts and journals. Video and audiotapes, computer services, and more support patients increasing hunger for information about their health and medical care.

Finally, touch is an essential way of communicating caring and is unfortunately often omitted from the clinical setting. Therapeutic full body or chair massages are made available to patients, families and staff. Internship programs for massage therapists and training for volunteers who can give hand and foot rubs are also available, and help keep costs minimal. Families, as part of the Care Partner Program, can also be taught to give massages to loved ones while in the hospital and at home. Nurses, doctors and other staff find chair massage focusing on the neck, shoulders and back, a useful way to relieve stress and re-energize.

It's nice to know that there are organizations that are beginning to think hard about how the medical field can more adequately help people care for one another. By relieving the stress on both the patient and caregiver ends, Planetree hopes to provide a community of healthcare givers at their institutions. Wouldn't it be nice if their model was more universally adopted!