Using evidence-based strategies to design safe, efficient, and adaptable patient rooms

The patient room is where patients spend the majority of their hospital stay and where they have the opportunity to interact with multiple caregivers. It also is the place where the potential for errors is greatest. Therefore, the design of patient rooms should be studied from the patient, staff, physician, and family perspectives. All have particular needs and desires that must be met.

It has been documented that patients want easy access, safety/security, privacy, accommodations for family, positive diversion/distraction, and the ability to see their providers. On the other hand, caregivers want the ability to see the patient and have accessible supplies/equipment. At the same time, there is pressure from families who are demanding more and better amenities as newer facilities blur the boundary between hospital and hospitality environments.

Your EDAC certification demonstrates that you have achieved a nationally approved level of knowledge about an evidence-based process, which should be used in the design and development of healthcare settings. Continuing education is an integral aspect of EDAC's mission to help you maintain excellence and mastery of an evidence-based design process.

As such, this accreditation requires you to undergo annual continuing education to ensure that you sustain the level of expertise that the program holds as the base knowledge of evidence-based design.

To maintain your status as an EDAC accredited individual, you must participate in six hours of approved continuing education sessions, and a $60 renewal fee every two years must be paid. Learn more about EDAC at http://edac.healthdesign.org. Questions? Email edac@healthdesign.org.

Patients are in the hospital because they require a level of care that cannot be delivered or is not available in their home. Continued shortages of healthcare staff means creating an environment that is safest for patients and most efficient for staff is critical.

Ideally, patient room design should assure that staff members have immediate access to the patient, minimize the need for patient lifting, decrease the number of caregiver steps required to access equipment/supplies, reduce the need to transfer patients, provide workspace for all staff, and decrease physical demands on staff. There is conflicting evidence to support the design features that support these needs. Each is influenced by care processes and available technology, along with the level of involvement of the family in the care of the patient. Some of the data are supported by research and some are based on observation, opinion, or anecdotal records. A review of the various ways to organize these design features to create an efficient, patient-centered, family-friendly patient room follows and is summarized with two designs that promote safety, efficiency, and adaptability.

Patient room design strategies

Design strategies that have a positive effect on patient outcomes and family/staff satisfaction include the following: private rooms, handwashing sinks, decentralized workstations, decentralized servers, family space, acuity-adaptable rooms, and same-handed configurations. Some are supported by evidence and some by experience. All have been implemented in a variety of ways in all types of settings.

Private rooms

Anyone who has worked in an environment where semi-private rooms are the norm has dealt with issues caused by gender differences, incompatible roommates, and who gets the bed by the window. These issues lead to many transfers, rework, as well as dissatisfied patients, families, and caregivers. The move to private rooms has improved these inconveniences; contributed to the reduction in hospital-acquired infections; improved staff, patient, and family satisfaction; and led to fewer errors.