Garissa County Teaching and Referral Hospital is putting the patient experience at the centre of its transformation, with outdoor spaces increasingly being treated as part of care rather than an afterthought.
Chief Executive Officer Mahat Sheikh Salah says the changes are intended to create a calmer and more welcoming environment for patients, families and health workers.
“A healing environment requires more than medicine and equipment. It entails how people feel when they arrive at a hospital,” Salah said.
He said the fountain waterfront and improved roundabout were designed to create a “calm, respectful and welcoming space” for patients, their families and staff.
But the transformation could extend well beyond the entrance.
Research published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health suggests that the design of hospital outdoor spaces can influence how patients, caregivers, health workers and nearby residents use hospital grounds.
The study, conducted at a major hospital in Taiwan, involved 419 respondents and more than 2,500 landscape choice experiments.
It found that shelters, play and fitness facilities, walking trails and benches were among the features most likely to encourage people to use outdoor hospital spaces.
For patients, shelters ranked highest, followed by seating, tree cover and walking paths. Caregivers placed greater value on trails, shelters and recreational facilities, while staff showed a stronger preference for spaces that allowed physical activity and recovery from demanding shifts.
Strong sunlight and high temperatures can make uncovered hospital grounds difficult to use for extended periods, particularly for elderly patients, caregivers, children and people recovering from illness.
Indigenous trees, shaded seating, sheltered waiting areas and accessible walking paths could therefore become practical components of a patient-centred hospital environment.
The need is also driven by the hospital’s growing regional catchment.
Garissa Referral Hospital serves patients from Garissa, Wajir, Mandera, Tana River, Isiolo and parts of Marsabit, while also receiving patients and referrals linked to the Dadaab refugee complex.
For many families, accessing specialist care means spending hours or even days within the hospital compound as relatives undergo investigations, receive treatment or wait for further referral.
A well-designed outdoor space could provide somewhere to sit, walk, rest or briefly escape the intensity of the clinical environment.
CEO Mahat Sheikh Salah has linked the patient-experience agenda to the hospital’s wider transformation as it moves towards Level 6 status and a stronger teaching and specialist referral role.
He has said reforms are already under way in staffing, infrastructure, revenue systems, digital health, diagnostics, specialised treatment and patient care, with the broader goal of reducing the need for patients from Northern Kenya to travel to Nairobi and other parts of the country for specialist services.
The growth in the workforce illustrates the scale of that transformation.
The number of specialists has increased from about five to 54, while nurses have risen from fewer than 100 to about 300, according to Salah.
The next phase includes an ultra-modern five-storey mother-and-child facility with about 400 beds, which he says will strengthen maternal and child healthcare across the region.
“The mother and child facility will greatly strengthen maternal and child healthcare services in Northern Kenya. It is an investment in the future of mothers and children across this region,” Salah said.
He has described the wider vision as a centre of excellence providing quality, affordable and accessible healthcare, insisting that “healthcare is not a luxury. It is a human right.”
Landscaping is now emerging as another layer of that transformation.
Management says the improvements are intended to reduce stress and support staff morale, with further work planned.
A logical next phase could include more indigenous shade trees, sheltered resting and waiting areas, benches, accessible walking routes and limited spaces for light exercise — designed specifically around Garissa’s climate, security requirements and maintenance capacity.
The Taiwan study also found that nearby residents valued play and fitness facilities, suggesting that hospital grounds can contribute to wider community wellbeing where access and maintenance are properly managed.
That would, however, require strong safeguards against misuse and neglect. Salah has already called on the community to help protect hospital facilities.
For a region that has historically sent patients far from home for specialised treatment, Garissa Referral Hospital’s transformation is increasingly being measured in more than beds, buildings and equipment.
It is also about what patients see, where they wait, how they move through the facility — and ultimately, how they feel when they arrive.
