Healthcare
Dispersing a pleasant scent has been shown to improve people’s mood and perceptions of their environment and has been used for that purpose for years in the hospitality, gaming and retail industries. But what about using ambient scent in a healthcare setting? Can it have a positive outcome on patient experience and wellness?
A research study published in the Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness says yes. Researchers studied the outcomes in a hospital pediatric ward when a stimulating scent, a relaxing scent and a control condition (no scent) were present.
The most striking result was that the children reported a significant decrease in the amount of pain they reported by more than half. Complaints about pain dropped from 10.1% of all verbal feedback in the no scent condition to nearly one-third (3.6%) with a relaxing scent and slightly more but still a significant drop (4.2%) when a stimulating scent was used.
In addition, many of the children’s comments indicated that the scent made them feel as if they weren’t in the hospital. Feedback from the pediatric patients included the following observations, “When I close my eyes, I don’t have the impression that I am at the hospital,” “Since we are locked in here and you cannot go out, we feel the nature…we have the feeling that we breathe easier…really I am here in the same room for four days and I find that it smells of nature, trees and grass.” The subjective feeling that the patients are not as confined can lower their stress levels and result in a better overall patient experience.
The emergency room at Vanderbilt University Hospital has been using ambient scenting since 2010. Their Emergency Department Wellness Committee put together a scenting rollout document that pinpoints their reasons for using scent as twofold:
• Create a “healthier environment with increased energy and decreased stress” for emergency room staff
• Minimize “foul odors throughout the department”
They cite evidence-based practice for hospital scenting and nearly 70 other hospital and medical facilities that use environmental scenting (list available upon request). They also reference studies that show that scenting “relieve(s) stress and anxiety for patients and staff” and “reduce(s) pain and facilitate(s) sleep for the patient.”
Florida Hospital in Celebration, Florida added scent to its MRI department and reduced cancellations by 50%.
Recently, two hospitals in South Florida have started scenting programs. North Shore Medical Center in North Miami is scenting its main lobby area and the brand new Lennar Foundation Medical Center on the University of Miami campus is scenting multiple parts of its facility, including the main lobby, back lobby, imaging waiting area, centralized waiting area, ER waiting room, administrative offices and executive medicine, the women’s studies waiting area and the sports medicine area.
The experience of these innovative medical centers shows that environmental scenting at hospitals and other medical facilities has numerous benefits for both patients and staff, including stress reduction, better care through encouraging important diagnostic testing, pain reduction, malodor remediation and a more energetic and motivated medical staff.
Contact Scentpression and see how you, your patients and staff experiences these benefits from environmental scenting your medical facility.
