Home care, healing environment - As Much As

As much as I enjoy reading in the Wall Street Journal
That future hospitals will be healing places,
I know
There’s no place like home,
As a healing spot to go.


As much as I like the concept
That hospitals will offer home-like amenities.
I feel
There’s no place like home,
As a space to heal.

As much as I love the idea
That hospitals will be healing environments,
I maintain
There’s no place like home,
As an oasis for health to sustain.

As much as I admire the theory,
That hospitals will have no noise, no harsh lighting,
No sharp corners, no environmental stresses,
I believe,
There’s no place like home,
As a chamber for pressures to relieve.

As much as I embrace the hypothesis
That hospitals will have social spaces, gardens,
Acoustical tiles, odor filters, and natural light,
I insist,
There’s no place like home,
As a natural ecology in which to exist.

As much as I know home care isn’t always possible,
That hospitals are needed for adverse conditions,
I pray,
We can make hospitals like home,
As pleasant infirmaries to keep diseases at bay.

As much as I acknowledge the need for care
That hospitals and other institutions supply,
I fear,
Most these dreaded words,
You won’t be going home again, dear.

There’s no place like home.
Unless you need to be in the hospital,
Which, if hospital designers have their way
Will become more like
A home away from home.

1. Laura Landro, Hospitals Set Blueprint for a Better ‘Healing Environment,’ Outdated Facilities Redesign Patient Areas to Lift Quality of Care, Wall Street Journal, March 21, 2007