M.D. Anderson Research: The Physical Environment's Effect on Patients, Families, & Staff

M.D. Anderson Research:  The Physical Environment's Effect on Patients, Families, & Staff is a webinar case study presentation on the impact of built environment factors on various healthcare facility populations. 

This case study presentation describes a research project conducted by researchers at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. The project examined the influence of built environment factors (BEFs) on patients, family members/caregivers, staff, and physicians from four multidisciplinary care centers (MCCs) prior to and after moving to the new Ambulatory Clinical Building at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Of the four MCCs, three moved during the study--Breast, Gynecologic [GYN], and Genitourinary [GU]--and one--Gastrointestinal [GI]--remained in the same environment.

The goal of this research was to determine the strength of associations between six BEFs identified as important from the literature and participant outcomes. The six BEFs are: 1) noise levels, 2) pleasant distractions, 3) safety features, 4) wayfinding systems, 5) support spaces, and 6) patient and family member/caregiver control. The participant outcomes (behavioral factors--BFs) include perceptions of service quality, emotional distress, teamwork, safety, commitment to the institution, and willingness to recommend the institution. The webinar presentation highlights key findings and discuss next steps in this research agenda.

Webinar Learning Objectives

• Identify six built environment factors that impact healthcare
• Understand the impact of each factor on different populations in the study (i.e., patients, family members/caregivers, physicians, and staff)
• Understand the relationship between built environment factors and behavioral factors
• Identify future areas of research that are needed

About the Speakers

Jason Etchegaray currently works as a Sr. Improvement Advisor at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. He has conducted research on patient safety, leadership/learning issues, and the role of the environment on individual perceptions during the last eight years. He is also an adjunct faculty member at several universities and enjoys serving on thesis/dissertation committees. Jason earned his B.A. in Psychology from the University of California at San Diego and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Houston.

Wayne Fischer is Manager of Research in the Institute for Healthcare Excellence at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. He earned his Masters and PhD in Chemical Engineering at Purdue University, majoring in Systems Design, Analysis, Modeling, & Optimization. He then spent eighteen years in research and development at three major corporations - working in or leading their technical computing groups.

Early in his career Wayne assumed a leadership position in Quality Improvement, significantly increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the production, analysis, and interpretation of research data by teaching/internally consulting in the use of a wide range of applied statistical methods, and process modeling, simulation, and optimization.

After researching and gaining a basic understanding of the science of Effective Teams, in 1991 he was asked to lead the team-based implementation of Total Quality Management in a major petrochemical business group consisting of manufacturing, marketing and sales, supply and distribution, and human resources. After three years and with no staff, designing and managing various large-scale organizational change projects, over one-hundred teams had been trained, decisions were being made more quickly in the organization, and the bottom line was being significantly impacted as measured by ROIs.