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Design & Restorative Places

New Report | Take Burnout from Red to Green

By way of a new calculation described in this white paper, we now have a means to calculate the potential financial impact of green spaces on a hospital’s bottom line

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Report cover Take Burnout from Red to Green, with a nurse relaxing in a chair

For the first time, health economists have placed a dollar estimate on the impact hospital greenspaces can have on mitigating nurse and physician-associated burnout-related costs. And it’s eye-opening.

While nature’s efficacy in reducing stress and burnout is well documented, as is research on the impact and costs stemming from burnout of nurses and physicians, until now, no one has developed and publicly shared a means to calculate how valuable nature could be to hospitals when used as a biophilic intervention for staff.

To arrive at this new calculation, we zeroed in on two domains of existing, published research data:

-one, studies that quantify burnout’s impact on turnover, absenteeism and medical liability; and

-two, research that quantifies how a biophilic intervention, in the form of a hospital garden, can reduce levels of stress and burnout.

Report cover Take Burnout from Red to Green, with a nurse relaxing in a chair | right

Who should read this report? Hospital leaders and administrators, health care consultants, physicians and nurses working to advance efforts aimed at fostering better hospital working environments and landscape architects designing for health care settings.

Why read it? To discover how to quantify the financial impact of a hospital greenspace when employed as a means to mitigate nurse and physician burnout.

Use the calculator to arrive at a custom calculation for your hospital.

Use the calculator to arrive at a custom calculation for your hospital.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT

Funding Support

This project has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under assistance agreement CB96358501 to Maryland Department of Natural Resources. The contents of this document do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Environmental Protection Agency, nor does the EPA endorse trade names or recommend the use of commercial products mentioned in this document.

Chesapeake Bay Trust license plate with a bridge and blue crab | left

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