Hospital Green

RGB 129, 201, 159

'Hospital Green'

 

(Green just so happens to be my colour of choice, but not that fussed over this particular shade)

Why is green associated with hospitals?

Even many of the machines were green.

Green first appeared in a San Francisco hospital in 1914. Harry Sherman, an American surgeon, found traditional whites too bright, and the glare (especially with new lighting systems) reduced his ability to discriminate anatomical features under scrutiny. Using colour theory, he developed a “spinach green” environment, as the colour complement to hemoglobin red and created an entirely green operating theatre, complete with green walls, floors, sheets and towels. He discovered that his eyes could rest on the details and texture of the wound without competing with “extraneous light.”

Several other surgeons followed this direction in the 1910s and 1920s.

 

Around the same time, green also entered hospital culture through “colour therapy.” William Ludlow, an architect advocating colour in hospitals, stated: “White is negative; the convalescent needs the therapeutic reaction of the positive colours that nature has spread so lavishly for her children. … Our eyes were made to find rest and contentment in soft greens, pale blues, an occasional touch of red, but above all, the glorious golden yellow of the sunshine.”

In a variation of this trend, Dr. Charles Ireland of Guy’s Hospital in London wrote an entire book in 1930, Colour and Cancer, on the use of concentrated doses of coloured light for treating cancer.

The largest push behind the widespread adoption of colour in hospitals, however, came from a group of industrial colour consultants, in the 1930s. One of whom is quoted as saying “Green is one of the best of all hues,” he wrote. It is “fresh in appearance and slightly passive in quality.” It calmed patients and workers and invited inward repose. Misty green, derived from colour schemes developed for the US Navy, came to be one of the more popular shades used by medical instrument makers.

 

These colour trends travelled north. By 1945, an official at the Canadian Medical Association claimed that colour had become an item of “major importance” in the psychological treatment of a patient by promoting serenity of mind and restfulness.Ten years later a CMAJ editor noted that the use of colour was one of the most radical changes in the modern ward. He wrote, on the other hand, that we should not get carried away “with all this” and find our wards covered in green walls and red ceilings.

But his cautionary words were too late, as green was rapidly finding its way into Canadian hospitals. In 1955, one of Canada’s pioneering neurosurgeons, Dr. William Feindel, opened a neurosurgery unit at the University Hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, complete with a cutting-edge green surgical suite. When Feindel asked, however, if he could install more viewing screens on the walls, the chief of surgery reluctantly agreed, warning that the architects would not like to see their beautiful green tiles covered (personal communication).

In other words, green had become a major symbol of the modern hospital, advocated by hospital administrators and architects, and would remain a staple of the medical experience well into the 1970s.

 - From "The Colour of Medicine" CMAJ. Sep 2009; 181(6-7): 402–403. doi:  10.1503/cmaj.091058

...and from another article from scienceline.org ..

Green could help physicians see better for two reasons. First, looking at blue or green can refresh a doctor’s vision of red things, including the bloody innards of a patient during surgery. The brain interprets colors relative to each other. If a surgeon stares at something that’s red and pink, he becomes desensitized to it. The red signal in the brain actually fades, which could make it harder to see the nuances of the human body. Looking at something green from time to time can keep someone’s eyes more sensitive to variations in red, according to John Werner, a psychologist who studies vision at the University of California, Davis.
Second, such deep focus on red, red, red can lead to distracting green illusions on white surfaces. These funky green ghosts could appear if a doctor shifts his gaze from reddish body tissue to something white, like a surgical drape or an anesthesiologist’s alabaster outfit. A green illusion of the patient’s red insides may appear on the white background. The distracting image would follow the surgeon’s gaze wherever he looks, similar to the floating spots we see after a camera flash.
((the saturation effect))
However, if a doctor looks at green or blue scrubs instead of white ones, these disturbing ghosts will blend right in and not become a distraction, according to Paola Bressan, who researches visual illusions at the University of Padova in Italy.


.. but also (from Henry J Kaufman MD)...

Green scrubs and surgical linens were originally adopted in the 1950′s because blood stains often leave a greenish discoloration when laundered. Hospitals (who used to provide the scrubs) switched to green in order to save money on linens which had to be thrown out or were rapidly destroyed by frequent bleachings.
Scrub clothes are not visible in the operating room. Just the gown, caps and gloves. Surgical linens (drapes, gowns and towels) often were various shades of green. During the 70′s many hospitals did switch to blue, a more soothing color on the eyes. Which also helped centralized laundries from mixing up different institutions linen (blue for one hospital, green for another). Most scrubs in operating rooms remain blue or green today, however, some facilities have gone so far as to have scrubs in an obnoxious pink color, which helps to lessen the impact of scrubs ‘walking off’.
Many institutions have required scrubs of various colors for different hospital personel (doctors, nurses, orderlies, janitors, etc.)

Green generally..

"Green" is no longer just a color. It's now the symbol of ecology and a verb. It has previously signified growth, rebirth, and fertility. In pagan times, there was the "Green Man" - a symbol of fertility.  In Muslim countries, it is a holy color and in Ireland, a lucky color. It was the color of the heavens in the Ming Dynasty.

Globally, green is associated with nature, ecology and the environment. Traffic lights are green all over the world.

• In China, green may symbolise infidelity. A green hat symbolizes that a man's wife is cheating on him.
• In Israel, green may symbolise bad news.
• In Japan, the words for blue and green ("ao") are the same.
• In Spain, racy jokes are "green." 
• Feng Shui claims that green eases absent-mindedness, nervousness and rudeness.

Personally, I think my preference for green might come from when I was about 5 or 6 and I remember my older brother (in whom I believed without question) telling me that ghosts were afraid of the colour green. So I used to wear a green scarf when walking to the end of our dark hallway at home...

Some research links for this topic:

• "Individual Differences in Reactions Towards Color in Simulated Healthcare Environments: The Role of Stimulus Screening Ability" Journal of Environmental Psychology