Developing Evidence-Based Design Guidelines for Medical/Surgical Hospital Patient Rooms That Meet the Needs of Staff, Patients, and Visitors

Abstract

Objectives: This research investigated medical/surgical (Med/Surg) patient room design to accommodate the needs of hospital staff, while at the same time accommodating the needs of patients and their visitors. Background: Designing hospital patient rooms that provide a comfortable healing experience for patients, while at the same time meeting the needs of the hospital staff, is a challenging process. Prior research has shown that many hospital patient room designs adversely affect the ability of hospital staff to perform their tasks effectively, efficiently, and safely. Method: Twenty-seven design sessions were conducted in which 104 participants, representing 24 different occupations, worked in small mixed occupational groups to design an ideal single patient Med/Surg patient room to fit their collective needs using a full-scale mock-up. During analysis, the investigators reduced the resulting 27 room designs to 5 hybrid designs that were sequentially reviewed by patients and visitors and by staff to address design conflicts. Results: This design process identified 51 desirable room design features that were incorporated into 66 evidence-based design guidelines for the different areas within the Med/Surg patient room including the entry way (16 guidelines), the patient clinical area (22 guidelines), the bathroom (17 guidelines), the family area (8 guidelines), and storage areas for patients and their visitors (3 guidelines). Conclusions: The guidelines developed through this study identified many opportunities for improving the design of hospital Med/Surg rooms to allow staff to be more effective, efficient, and safer, while at the same time addressing the design needs of patients and their visitors.

Design Models for Single Patient Rooms Tested for Patient Preferences

“…Since no interactions here were significant, the interpretation is that patients would choose for a situation where they would be able "to hear" or "stay connected with" the hallways. This finding diverges from what Patterson et al (2017) reported using a simulated room combined with printed room layouts to highlight differences. Their results lend support to the interpretation that visibility of the hallway, in the current study the open door, was important to provide them with a sense of safety and security, However, whereas they found mixed perceptions as to whether or not people preferred the use of a privacy curtain, we found that people preferred an open door irrespective of the level of privacy corroborating their report of participants' need to stay connected to people and the outside world.…”

Implications for the Physical Design of the Postnatal Care Unit from a Targeted Analysis of Issues With Accessing the Bathroom at Night in the Acute Setting: A Secondary Analysis

“…The remaining two interventions focus patient room bathroom doors, where we propose improved use of grab bars in patient bathrooms, adding additional and/or relocating existing grab bars in accordance with best practice guidelines. Grab bars were a potential intervention mentioned by multiple interviewees in the transcript analysis and have a strong backing to indicate their efficacy (Lavender et al 2020).…”

Designing a Patient Room as a Fall Protection Strategy: The Perspectives of Healthcare Design Experts

“…To best support the capabilities and limitations of patient tasks in patient rooms, it is imperative to establish a baseline understanding about which design principles and features should therefore be prioritized, from multiple points of view. There has been an increasing awareness about the diverse views of stakeholders to inform the design process [16][17][18][19]. While it is certainly necessary to gather empirical data about patients using a prototype design to inform a proactive approach for safety, it is also important to address the assumptions made by those designing the room.…”