Bench seats which convert to beds, over-sized windows, and clinical equipment shifted out of patients' view.
These are some of the design concepts John Hunter Hospital is adopting in prototype rooms as part of its $835 million redevelopment.
Hunter New England Local Health District infrastructure, planning and sustainability executive director Dr Ramsey Awad took Health Minister Ryan Park on a tour of a prototype room and birthing suite at the hospital on Tuesday.
Dr Awad said the health district was pioneering an emotion-based design methodology which took into account the challenges many patients and medical staff had expressed about hospital rooms.
The rooms include long benches which seat seat four or five family and friends and convert into pull-out beds, allowing carers to stay longer and reducing work loads for nurses.
The design eliminates all but the patient's chair from the room, reducing trip hazards and giving staff easier access.
Dr Awad, who has an architecture degree, said the designers had incorporated large windows in the rooms after Indigenous people expressed a need to feel connected to country while in hospital.
Birthing suites have large baths in the main room.
"We wanted to create a clinical space that evokes healing, sanctuary and human connection that positively responds to the emotional needs of those interacting with our services," he said.
"We know there's a link between healing and physical environment. Since introducing emotional design briefs to our planning processes, we've seen better outcomes for both patients and staff.
"People told us that they wanted our new acute services building to have access to nature, induce feelings of safety and security and ensure privacy."
Dr Awad said the rooms also would "minimise the visual impact of clinical equipment, ensuring a more home-like environment".
Research has shown sensitive room design can reduce stress for women giving birth and reduce medical interventions.
"These prototype rooms are giving staff the opportunity to see, touch, test and simulate scenarios within the planned clinical spaces, offering more opportunities to provide feedback and ensure the design is fit-for-purpose," Mr Park said.
"More than 500 interviews and workshops with staff, community, architects, patients and carers have guided the functional design of the prototype rooms which will be close replicas of those in the new seven-storey acute services building."
The hospital redevelopment project is expected to take another four years to complete.
