Oct. 17, 2008

New lounge is a healing oasis for patient and families

The Bone Marrow Transplant Unit (BMTU) on 7 West at UPMC Shadyside has a secret. Inside this sterile place, where patients have undergone the toughest treatment of their lives, is an oasis of calm and color: a unique patient lounge. The lounge, five years in the making, was the vision of Susan Herward, RN, patient care coordinator, and Lilly Kaufmann, the mother of a 19-year old son, William, who lost his battle with leukemia in the same unit.

Ms. Herward, an oncology nurse, knows well the experience her patients undergo after they’ve had a bone marrow transplant. No flowers and no live plants are allowed in the unit. “It’s as clinical and sterile as we can make it,” she says. But a clinically sterile room can sometimes feel just that: sterile. Ms. Herward wanted to create a more “humanized” environment, a place that encourages relaxation and healing, “where patients and families can be together during the crisis; a calming, healing place to sit down and absorb bad news,” she explains.

Inside the lounge, which was a patient room, the walls are a vivid leafy green, with a plush-looking leather sectional couch, flanked by two brightly colored mushroom stools crafted of bamboo, and a multicolor “oriental” rug of polypropylene. All materials in the patient lounge are easy to keep scrupulously clean — a necessity in the BMTU, where patients have undergone chemotherapy and radiation, and have weakened immune systems.

After securing the room with the help of Tami Merryman, chief quality officer, UPMC, Ms. Herward went to work. She enlisted help from the maintenance staff, found the perfect linoleum flooring that looks like hardwood, made calls and gathered funding with help from Mrs. Kaufmann, Dr. Stanley Marks, chief medical officer at Hillman Cancer Center, and Dr. Lyn Robertson, associate director of Cancer Control Services at UPMC Cancer Centers. The lounge was also funded in part by the Shadyside Hospital Foundation.

Decorating a room to fit clinical guidelines — using no fabric, no pillows, no rug, and no curtains — was the challenge for designer Jen Schweitzer of One Girl Graphics. Ms. Schweitzer, who worked pro bono, used eco-friendly, non-toxic paint, artificial grasses, accents of stone and bamboo, and galvanized tin containers for books and magazines. The picture window, which faces Centre Avenue, allows the room to be flooded with natural light. Patients and their families can retreat into the lounge to read, watch TV, or enjoy the fish darting back and forth in a corner tropical fish tank. There’s also a Wii interactive video game system and an electronic keyboard stored in the room.

Comments from patients and families have been recorded in a large autograph book. “It’s very relaxing; the color is absolutely gorgeous,” says one entry. “I love coming in here to relax,” notes another. “The rocks, the grasses, and fish — it all calms me. It feels so good to be in here.”

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