Art heals: How creative expression improves the patient experience

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Can art promote faster healing? More and more hospitals think so. For the past 20 years, art--including paintings, sculptures and music--has taken on an important role in healthcare. Watercolors and abstract photographs often line the once-barren walls of hospital corridors. And harpists and pianists often play soothing music in hospital lobbies.

The use of art to help heal patients dates back to Florence Nightingale, according to the Center for Health Design's "Guide to Evidence-Based Art." Nightingale's 1860 Notes for Nursing describes the importance of beauty to the body, as well as the mind, the study states.

In this special report, FierceHealthcare explores how Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital in Pennsylvania, Lee Memorial Hospital in Florida and the Mayo Clinic in Arizona have incorporated art in their facilities and in care delivery. The acrylic pictured above, entitled "She Kept the Faith" by Richard Retter, is on display at the Mayo Clinic. 

Art Ability at Bryn Mawr

In 1996 the creative director of a New York advertising agency was involved in a taxi cab accident. The crash left him with brain damage and he was sent to Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital in southeastern Pennsylvania to recover. It was there that he became immersed in Art Ability, a program that partnered with Bryn Mawr which uses art to enrich the lives of patients, as well as people with disabilities the world over.

The ad man's ability to express himself though art proved helpful in the rehabilitation process, Leighton McKeithen, director of marketing and communications for Art Ability, told FierceHealthcare in an exclusive interview. 

Many patients have found art to be "a useful way to express feelings after an illness that deprives other functions," says McKeithen. 

The program isn't typical art therapy however. "We don't teach patients to create art," he says. "Just being able to see art, particularly done by people with disabilities, helps in the healing process," says Sherman Fleming, Art Ability's curator. 

Click here to view a slideshow of the artwork.