Creating a healing environment: rationale and research overview

The environment of care has been shown to reduce the burden of disease and shorten healing time across multiple medical conditions. Given that many diseases respond to the unexplained regulation of the autonomic nervous system, the mechanism of interplay between the environment and this regulation needs to be explored and addressed as part of health care delivery. Complementary and alternative medical practices can be blended with traditional evidence-based medicine to optimally promote a healing environment and overall patient wellbeing. This review outlines the rationale behinded "blended medicine" and healing-oriented design of health care facilities, featuring examples and lessons learned from the North Hawaii Community Hospital.