Healthcare Design - November 2014 - 8

E EDITORIAL | 11.14
Editor-in-Chief Kristin D. Zeit
kzeit@vendomegrp.com; 216.373.1212
Executive Editor Jennifer Kovacs Silvis
Senior Editor Anne DiNardo
Associate Editor Shandi Matambanadzo
Associate Editor, Reader Engagement Megan Combs
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Sara Marberry
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Art Director Rebecca DeNeau
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Sheila F. Cahnman JumpGarden Consulting,
Wilmette, Ill.
Hamilton Espinosa DPR Construction, Phoenix
Thomas Gormley URS Corp., New York
Walter B. Jones The MetroHealth System, Cleveland
Jain Malkin healthcare designer, La Jolla, Calif.
Andrew S. Quirk Skanska USA Building, Nashville
Kim E. Shinn TLC Engineering, Brentwood, Tenn.
Joseph G. Sprague HKS Inc., Dallas
Roger S. Ulrich Chalmers University of Technology,
Sweden; and Aalborg University, Denmark
Gary Vance BSA LifeStructures, Indianapolis

8
8

HCDmagazine.com 11.14
www.healthcaredesignmagazine.com 02.13

A room of one's own
Evidence mounts in the case for private patient rooms,
for even the youngest occupants
By Kristin D. Zeit
Private patient rooms have gained such widespread acceptance in the U.S. that
it's pretty much step one in any large-scale acute care renovation or new-build
project. And arguments have been made-and evidence gathered-in support of
single beds in other types of care facilities, as well, from senior care settings all the
way down to NICUs.
The movement toward private rooms for NICU babies, in particular, has gained
steam in recent years, and now there's new research supporting claims that
infants may in fact have better health outcomes in single-family environments. In
the October 2014 issue of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, researchers from The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
describe their findings from data collected between 2008 and 2012 at Women &
Infants Hospital of Rhode Island.
Women & Infants provided an excellent opportunity for studying single-family
rooms versus an open-bay setup, as it converted care from the latter to the former
in 2009, creating (at the time) the largest single-family-room NICU in the country.
Data from the open-bay NICU was collected on 151 babies over 18 months in
2008-2009, while similar data from the new layout was collected on 252 infants
over 31 months in 2010-2012.
According to authors Barry M. Lester and Dr. James F. Padbury, the results
showed that single-room infants fared better in terms of weight gain, the number
of medical procedures required, and the experience of physiological stress and
pain, among other factors. They stressed that new care models in the single-room
configuration, including more family-centered approaches, play heavily into the
findings. "If you build a single-family-room unit and do not change how you care
for the babies, it would be unrealistic to expect to see any significant improvement," Lester said.
And the move toward more family- and patient-centered care continues to
influence the design of patient rooms for adults, as well, one of many points
discussed by Executive Editor Jennifer Kovacs Silvis in our special report on
the state of the patient room and where it's headed ("Room for Improvement,"
page 40). More and more, this most personal of spaces in the acute care world
demands our attention (hello, HCAHPS scores!). Single-bedded rooms, daylighting, and views of nature are now table stakes for inpatient
design-so what's next on the horizon? As caregivers shift
into new roles to enhance patient experience and outcomes,
it's up to our industry to redefine and provide the best possible space to perform. HCD

Keep the conversation going: Follow me at @KDZeit on Twitter, read my blog
at HCDmagazine.com/blog/kristin-zeit, and interact with all the editors at The
Healthcare Design Connection on LinkedIn (HCDmagazine.com/LinkedIn) and on
Facebook (HealthcareDesignMag).

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Healthcare Design - November 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Healthcare Design - November 2014