Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital

A multi-disciplinary collaboration between healthcare professionals, architects, designers, and community members, this healing garden is part of a model for progressive healthcare.

Location: Lebanon, Oregon
Size: 11,000 square feet
Year: June – November 2004

The Healing Garden at Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital (SLCH) marked the transformation of this small, rural hospital into a nationally-recognized, award-winning model of progressive healthcare, ultimately playing an integral role in the revitalization of the entire town.

Envisioned and created through a multi-disciplinary collaboration between SLCH’s Foundation, healthcare professionals, architects, community members and Kurisu International, the Healing Garden transformed an existing underutilized 11,000 square-foot courtyard into a vibrant, naturalistic environment that serves four distinct hospital populations in a single space.

goldfish pond at Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital

Expectant mothers in the birth wing enjoy visual access to a private garden of year-round blooms, while a koi pond and waterfalls provide positive distraction to patients in the infusion therapy wing, where patients also have the option to receive treatment outside, at the pond's edge.

path through healing garden at Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital

Education students view a meditative, Zen-style garden from their classroom. A publicly accessible part of the garden, visible from inside the cafeteria and along a main corridor, encourages getting out of doors with garden paths designed as natural modes of egress leading through the garden.

Two authentically crafted Japanese-style gazebos provide shelter, places to gather for social support, and all-weather dining. Strolling paths invite patients, staff, and visitors to stretch their legs, and get some fresh air as they explore further into the garden.

patient receiving infusion therapy while looking at garden at Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital

When a preliminary interview between Kurisu and one of the nurses at SLCH revealed that the planned infusion therapy wing would not have garden views, Kurisu and the architects collaborated to produce a design of curved floor-to-ceiling windows extending right into the garden - and what oncologist Dr. George Norek calls “the best place in the state to receive chemotherapy and other infusion therapies.”

infusion wing at Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital

garden waterfall at Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital

The Healing Garden at SLCH has boosted patient volumes, delighted staff, motivated existing and new donors in and outside the community to pledge generously, and opened up numerous grant and business opportunities.

In 2006, Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital's Healing Garden received the First Place Healthcare Environment Award for Landscape Design. For more information on Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital and their Healing Garden, visit the Samaritan Health Services website.

We know intuitively that with this relaxing environment and wonderful view, we can achieve a better outcome.

Dr. George Norek, MD, Oncologist, 2009
The full-grown trees offer shade and solace, the waterfalls and ponds serenity. It's a new direction in medicine known as the healing garden, a place where people can leave behind the stressful aspects of their lives for a few quiet moments.

George Petroccione, Albany Democrat, Herald, October 21, 2014
Research has shown that viewing gardens can reduce patient stress and improve health outcomes while also having the ability to reduce stress among employees and visitors. A 1991 study showed that gardens have the ability to have a positive effect on blood pressure, heart activity, the brain's electrical activity and muscle tension.

George Petroccione, Albany Democrat, Herald, October 21, 2014
The garden has transformed the mental wellbeing of hospital patients and caregivers. It has also revived the economic health of Lebanon. The garden-adjacent care has attracted out-of-state patients to the facility and drawn doctors from afar.

Visionary Landscapes by Kendall Brown, 2017
It [the Healing Garden] changes your inner feelings about what has happened to you. It makes you realize, there's an end to all this. I am going to get better.

Frank Karo, SLCH cardiac rehab patient and frequent visitor to the Healing Garden
Clinical outcomes improve when patients are exposed to natural environments. It makes sense to expose both patients and staff to the healing capacity of the garden. We believe this is the design model for the future delivery of healthcare. The impact of the Healing Garden on our patients, and on our physicians and staff, has been nothing short of extraordinary. From morale and pride, to patient care, to a spirit of healing and recovery, it profoundly affects us every day.

Becky Pape, CEO, Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital
The impact of the Healing Garden on our patients, and on our physicians and staff, has been nothing short of extraordinary. From morale and pride, to patient care, to a spirit of healing and recovery, it profoundly affects us every day.

Becky Pape, CEO, Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital
The garden is such a beautiful and amazing addition to our hospital. It creates an environment of peace and well-being for the hospital staff, the visitors and patients. But more importantly, it generates something very personal and pure within the individual. It touches the soul, and what could be more important and healing than that?

M.A. Vanderford, Administrative Assistant, SLCH

Healing Gardens

Our Japanese-style healing gardens are designed with an intention for restoration on the deepest levels. We incorporate the ancient philosophies and techniques of Japanese garden design to reawaken the connection between people and nature – between ourselves and the larger, timeless cycles of change and regeneration.