City of Hope brings Disney-style immersion to spiritual care
Whenever Annette Walker, president of Irvine, Calif.-based City of Hope Orange County, has entered a hospital’s spiritual care center, typically she sees one of two things.
“Either they look like a white conference room and they’re so neutral that they don’t offend anybody, but they also don’t inspire anybody,” she told Becker’s. “Or they pick one denomination, but then what happens to all the rest of the people who don’t get the comfort and the opportunity that they should also have?”
Ms. Walker said City of Hope Orange County is located in a diverse community — ethnically, philosophically, politically and religiously.
Research shows spiritual care is linked to better health outcomes, and 91% of individuals with advanced cancer have spiritual needs, according to City of Hope.
These factors were central in designing its multidenominational spiritual care center, located in City of Hope’s 73-bed cancer specialty hospital in Irvine. It uses immersive technology to allow visitors to select one of seven spaces on a touch screen — a chapel, mandir, mosque, temple, synagogue, shorelines or an alpine forest — which then displays on a main screen and two side screens, transforming the space based on the user’s preferences.
“We always knew that we would need a spiritual care center,” Ms. Walker said. “Cancer patients are often in one of the most challenging times of their lives. In every aspect of how we’ve built our whole outpatient and inpatient spaces, we have gone to every length to say, ‘How could we make the patient more comfortable?’”
How it came about
As the team brainstormed a way to include all members of its diverse community in the spiritual care center, COO Annette Morgan shared an idea: immersive reality. It was a concept the organization had not yet considered — how technology could aid in creating different spaces within the same space, Ms. Walker said.
The next step was asking patients and religious leaders, through a combination of surveys and interviews, what they would want to see. Based on responses, City of Hope chose five main religious faith traditions. There was also a large group of people who said they are spiritual — not religious — and turn to nature for sacred time. To create these virtual spaces, the system collaborated with Roger Holzberg, a former Disney “imagineer”; their efforts led to the creation of seven scenes, including an ocean view from one of Orange County’s beaches.
City of Hope worked with religious leaders to develop each virtual scene, which activates once selected on the touch screen. The experience begins outside of the religious building, if one is selected, and gradually moves inward. Inside, the environment is not static. It is meant to feel alive, Ms. Walker said, with shifting clouds, flickering candles, bird calls and waves crashing, depending on the selection.
The Wetterau Family Spiritual Care Center is preparing to accept its first patient Dec. 1. Although the space is not yet widely accessible as the hospital is not open, it will also be an area for staff members to recenter and recharge, Ms. Walker said.
“I’m grateful to work for an organization that feels the way it does about patients, and then also gives freedom to people like me to help do things in ways that haven’t been done before,” she said. “I don’t think every organization provides that opportunity, and I’m grateful that City of Hope is such a place.”
The post City of Hope brings Disney-style immersion to spiritual care appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.