HP Innovation Journal Issue 11: Winter 2018 | Page 31

CASE STUDY:
IMPROVING CHILDREN'S HOSPITALS
From bright butterflies to green leaves, HP
Latex prints are transforming sterile medical
environments into magical spaces designed to
help kids heal.
At Niño Jesús University Hospital in Madrid, Spain,
brightly colored butterflies and busy birds cover the
ceilings of the pediatric cancer treatment center. Fish
and ducks, playfully illustrated in festive hues, patrol
a pond that winds down a hallway.
How did nature make its way into an environment that
can often be severe and frightening? HP partnered
with the nonprofit Fundación Juegaterapia, which is
dedicated to transforming the experience of hospital
stays for children, to revamp the treatment center
using HP’s unparalleled graphic printing technology.
“When the children get into this newly decorated
space, they smile,” says Lourdes Amayas, press chief
for Fundación Juegaterapia. “Before that, they couldn’t
imagine that a hospital would be like this.”
The Niño Jesús makeover is just the latest in a series
of projects HP is rolling out in hospitals in the United
States and Europe. Using HP’s graphic illustrations on
furniture, walls, floors, and ceilings, the partners are
creating warm, uplifting, health-promoting environments
for children who must undergo difficult medical
treatments or stay in a hospital for months at a time.
LESS STRESS = LESS SEDATION
In Spain, where HP started working with hospitals
three years ago, transforming first Sant Joan de Déu
Hospital in Barcelona and then Hospital de León,
the makeovers have been accompanied by better
medical results.
At Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, the partners transformed
the diagnostic and MRI area into a “space odyssey,” with
the MRI machine decorated to look like a rocket. From
the moment the young patients arrive, they’re treated
as though they’re astronauts—the heroes of a great
space mission.
Distracted by this imaginative play, the children
become less frightened, which has cut sedation rates
by 30%.
“We’ve been able to inspire these hospitals with the
power of technology—and they’ve been so open to
changing these environments because they also get the
impact,” says Oscar Vidal, head of HP’s Large Format
Business Iberia, who spearheaded the project.
Buoyed by the success of the pediatric center’s redesign,
Niño Jesús, HP, and Fundación Juegaterapia are now
working on plans for the hospital’s main entrance, its
surgical block, and its oncology-hospitalization area.
CASE STUDY
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