A tent erected to help New York City-based Mount Sinai Beth Israel accommodate a surge of COVID-19 patients is now being used by healthcare workers as a place to get away from stress, The New York Times reports.
When the number of coronavirus patients ebbed, the hospital converted it into a recovery space for its employees.
The tent has leather recliners surrounded by plants, where workers can relax and meditate. A projector can display nine landscapes on the tent's walls, each with its own soundscape. Diffusers offer a range of calming smells, including lavender and chamomile.
Hospital officials told the Times that a survey of 500 workers who used the tent showed that their stress decreased 60 percent after about 15 minutes in the space.
"You go from hearing beeps and vents and whistles and all the intensity on the ward, with the bright lights, to this serene space," Dahlia Rizk, DO, chief of the hospital medicine division at the hospital, told the Times. "Suddenly, something happens that really allows you to decompress almost immediately."