Enhancing Inpatient Sleep Environments: A Design Thinking Case Study

Research shows how vital sleep is to total health, with poor sleep having a strong correlation with morbidity and mortality, yet fewer than half of top hospitals have sleep-friendly practices. This article describes a project motivated by the lived experiences of a nurse manager and a hospitalist who partnered to improve the sleep environments on two inpatient units. They used design thinking, empathizing with the patients' experiences with the sleep environment, to design interventions to promote quality sleep. Results showed improvements in patient experience on the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers & Systems question, "During your hospital stay how often was the area around your room quiet at night?" Patient measures on how well the hospital created conditions for sleep on the unit also showed improvements, as well as the patients' perception of how well they slept. Care teams can use design thinking to replicate this project and listen to their patients to build and deploy interventions on their units to improve sleep environments.