Patient surveys indicate such art, even traditional museum art, polls unfavorably with patients. Some patients say the artwork causes anxiety, even nausea.

An entire hospital art industry has sprung forth in response as initial studies and surveys indicate hospital artwork can aid market share, staff retention and, most importantly, the healing process.

Many hospitals budget $1 to $2 per gross square foot for art in new construction, or up to 1 percent of construction cost, according to industry norms.

“Art isn't being looked at any more as an added bit of decoration but as an integral part of the healing process,” said Denise Rippinger, founder of Schaumburg-based Health Environment Art Services, a unit of Corporate Artwork. Her firm helped pioneer the corporate and health-care artwork industry almost 20 years ago.

With annual sales of about $2.5 million, her local clients include Provena Mercy Medical Center and Rush Copley in Aurora, Provena St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin and St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates.

“A lot of people still don't fully understand there is a science to this,” said Kathy Hathorn, chief executive officer of American Art Resources, which has worked extensively with Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Houston-based American Art Resources posts $6 million in annual sales. It works exclusively with hospitals — more than 10,000 projects in three decades, Hathorn said.

Throughout the Chicago suburbs, hospitals employ music, poetry, dance and art in their healing programs. They use waterfalls, fish tanks, fountains, gardens and nearby ponds or lakes to create relaxing settings.

However, most of the hospital's artwork gets donated by local artists and carries price tags. Eight rotating galleries in common areas renew every three months.

Zion-based Cancer Treatment Centers of America consults with local interior consultant Lynn Angelos for its chain of hospitals, including the Midwestern Regional Medical Center in Zion.

No pictures of food in X-ray rooms, reminding fasting patients of being hungry, either. Rural, environmental art seems to be more popular than cityscapes, Meisner said.

A feature of Cancer Treatment Centers' Zion hospital is an eight-foot-tall mural with 13,000 photos taken by patients and arranged to be viewed from a distance to appear like the company's tree-boy-dog logo.

Cancer Treatment Centers gave patients 800 disposable cameras and told them to take pictures of anything that inspires them, including themselves, friends or even out the windows.

Similar “Images of Hope” murals exist at its four cancer treatment sites. The one in Zion went up in December. They update it regularly with photos of new patients.

Rippinger said hospitals adopting art and patient-friendly programs report increased patient and staff satisfaction while lowering operating costs and staff turnover, a key problem in the health-care field.

Alexian Brothers Hospital Network in Hoffman Estates and Elk Grove Village gives one of its clerics, Brother Valentino Bianco, authority to choose the artwork, mostly religiously-oriented art.

At Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, Vice President of Business Development Richard Heim works with an art program that relies on volunteer harpists and high school students.

The art program at Good Samaritan — part of the state's largest hospital system, Oak Brook-based Advocate Health Care — differs from others in the chain, which does not have a unified, system-wide art program. Still, the chain includes money for art in its architectural plans for expansions.

In Arlington Heights, Northwest Community Hospital relies on the Chicago-based architectural firm OWP/P's director of health care interiors, Jocelyn Stroupe, for its art in new additions that are under construction.

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