Patients in intensive care units suffer from stress and volume

"Adaptive Healing Room" is designed to reduce stress for patients in intensive care units
There is often an unpleasant noise in the ICU: beeps and rattles, nurses, nurses and doctors are constantly running into the rooms to take care of the patients. In the seriously ill, this often triggers stress, which can have a negative effect on the course of the disease. A new intelligent room and alarm concept for intensive care units should prevent this in the future. In the Berlin Charité and the University Hospital Münster (UKM) so-called "Adaptive Healing Room" were established, which should have a calming effect on the patients.

In the "Adaptive Healing Room" of the intensive care unit, sunlight is simulated
Intensive care units are in high demand, because the seriously ill need to be cared for around the clock. Not infrequently, the light also burns at night, which often causes patients to develop a disturbed day-night rhythm. The background noise is also high at around 85 decibels. This corresponds to a busy street five meters away.

Too much stress and noise for intensive care patients. That should change. (Image: Tyler Olson - fotolia)

A new spatial concept should significantly reduce the stress of intensive care patients and have a positive effect on the course of the disease. Eighteen months ago, a so-called "Adaptive Healing Room" was set up in the Berlin Charité. In the University Hospital Münster also two rooms of the intensive care unit were rebuilt accordingly for around 85,000 euros. The rooms are nicely decorated in orange-yellow and all connections for computers, oxygen and drug pumps are hidden behind a wall paneling. "Light from a specific wavelength, for example, simulates sunlight so that messenger substances are released in the body," explains Prof. Björn Ellger, Head of Intensive Care Medicine. "These can be positive for the healing process."

The patient also looks at a multimedia wall showing photos of the patient's family, familiar landscapes or calming waves on the beach, depending on their mood.
"Such projections give orientation over time, location and daily planning. This gives the patient security, "says Ellger. "In addition, all of these measures will improve the atmosphere that is often perceived as threatening by patients and their loved ones in intensive care units."

"Adaptive Healing Room" can prevent delirium
The "Adaptive Healing Room" focuses on the seriously ill. "We are especially concerned with patients who are at high risk of developing a delirium," explains Professor Hugo Van Aken to the news agency "dpa". This affects about 20 percent of all patients, in the over 65-year-olds almost half, according to the intensive care physician. The delirium is a consequence of restlessness and background noise and is expressed, inter alia, that the person talking nonsense or fall out of bed. "It is therefore very important to us to minimize the delirium-triggering factors for our patients as far as possible," emphasizes Prof. Norbert Roeder, Medical Director and CEO of the UKM.

Professor Uwe Janssens of the German Society for Intensive Care Medicine advocates the new room and alarm concepts of the "Adaptive Healing Room". Although it has not yet been proven that patients live longer due to an improved environment, it is clear that noise and stress have no positive effect. "Anyone who reduces noise automatically increases security," Janssens told the news agency. Economic constraints, however, have led to considerable problems with the implementation of the new models, especially in smaller houses.

Intensive Career Professor Bernd Böttiger of the University of Cologne also emphasizes to the agency that it is very difficult to reduce the stress burden. Large windows through which patients look at cherry trees and caregivers who only enter the rooms with flashlights at night are measures that would be taken at his clinic to reduce stress. (Ag)