Creating Healing Environments in Support of the U.S. Military: A Commitment to Quality through the Built Environment

The U.S. Military Health System (MHS) provides care to 9.2 million beneficiaries with approximately 130 thousand military and civilian staff in 70 military hospitals, 411 primary care clinics, and 417 dental clinics around the world. In anticipation of nearly $11 billion of new medical construction planned for the next 5 years, this paper describes the commitment of the MHS leadership and its approach to creating healing physical environments across the system, employing a set of principles, projected outcomes, and design features to achieve world-class facilities for service members and the military “family.” The results of a survey of active duty personnel and spouses indicated a desire for MHS facilities to provide space for family members to be able to spend the night, to control environmental features such as lighting and temperature, and to communicate more effectively with family and friends outside the facility via e-mail and telephone.