Maintenance of Open Areas and Landscaping

A well maintained open area of the hospital provides an aesthetic looks to the health facility and is crucial to patients’ physical, psychological and social recuperation and wellness.

Open areas

Open areas of the hospitals need to be maintained by ensuring following minimum interventions:

• No Abandoned Buildings: Any abandoned building in the hospital premises creates a risk of safety by attracting pests. They can be used for unsocial activities. Hospital needs to ensure that any building in the premises in a dilapidated condition is demolished if it cannot be repaired.
• If it is not possible for the health facility to demolish or reallocate the services to the abandoned building then it should be marked as “ABANDONED” and should be properly secured.
• No Encroachments: Hospital authorities should not allow any unauthorised encroachment inside the premises by authorised vendors/shops and in no circumstances unauthorised vendors should be allowed inside the premises. Hospitals also need to ensure that the access road to the hospital is not occupied or restricted by some vendors or unauthorised shops.
• No Thoroughfare: As detailed earlier in these guidelines, hospitals should ensure that boundary walls of the building should be intact to avoid any thoroughfare of general public. The entry and exit points of the hospital need to be guarded to avoid any thoroughfare by general public.
• No Thoroughfare: As detailed earlier in these guidelines, hospitals should ensure that boundary walls of the building should be intact to avoid any thoroughfare of general public. The entry and exit points of the hospital need to be guarded to avoid any thoroughfare by general public.
• No Water Logging: Hospitals need to ensure that proper sloping of open areas is done in such a way that the runoff water is drained easily. Drainage system needs to be checked ensuring free flow and the drainage should be maintained as per the periodic maintenance programme of the hospital. All the pot holes and bumps in the open areas and in the access roads need to be repaired periodically
• Health facility should ensure that there are no overgrown shrubs, weeds, grass and wild vegetation in the open areas of the hospital. All overgrown branches of plants/trees should be regularly trimmed depending upon the requirement.

Landscaping and Gardening

Landscaping is used to enhance visible features of open areas of the hospital. Properly planned and maintained landscapes and gardens in the hospital have following benefits for both the staff and patients of the hospital:

• Physical benefits: Interaction with the natural environment has a positive effect on patients’ feeling of well-being, which in turn has a salutary effect on their physical health.
• Psychological benefits: Natural scenes draw attention of the patients away from illness and helps in maintaining heart rates and blood pressure
• Social benefits: Natural environment in health facilities contributes to social integration by providing spaces for social interaction and support; they may significantly help increase access to social support for patients, families and staff.

While designing or planning a landscape and garden of the hospital following criteria are considered:

• While planning the garden of a healthcare facility, location, accessibility, environment and integration with overall hospital design should be taken into account.
• Gardens may be designed and set up attractively; gardens should be easily accessible through entrances and paths.
• Design of the garden should take into account patients’ psychological as well as physical needs, disabilities and duration of stay. Patients undergoing different kinds of treatment may use these areas for different purposes; for example, orthopaedic patients may need to use walking aids in the gardens; senior citizens may need handrails and more shaded areas; wheelchair bound patients may require a proper path for access.
• All green areas of hospital are to be provided with barricades, fence, wire mesh and gates to prevent unauthorised entry and to restrict mishandling of the plants.
• Hospital front area is to be maintained with grass beds, trees and garden with an aesthetic appearance.
• All the dry leaves and green waste should be removed on daily basis.

Herbal Garden

Apart from a garden, hospitals are also encouraged to set up a herbal garden within their premises. The herbal garden can be set up in addition to the normal garden or can be set up in separate plots. Pots can also be used in addition.

Plants in the herbal garden, created by the hospital, should be medicinal plants as available in the territory of the establishment.

Only organic and compost fertilisers but no chemical fertilizers should be used for the plantation of these medicinal plants in this garden.

All the criteria as listed above for landscaping and gardening are to be considered while planning the herbal garden.

A list of common medicinal plants available in India has been provided in Table 2 of these guidelines.

List of common medicinal plants for Herbal Garden

Source: : Guidelines For Implementation Of "KAYAKALP" Initiative