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Developing a Bed Expansion Plan When There is a Deficit of Private Rooms
 Prudent Hospital (PH) was originally designed to accommodate 250 licensed beds of which only 60 percent are in private patient rooms. Because of concerns with patient privacy, infection control and medical errors, along with undersized semiprivate patient rooms, PH leadership wanted to develop a bed expansion and replacement plan to address inpatient demand through the year 2020 but was also challenged with planning a staged conversion of semiprivate patient rooms to privates. All members of the PH executive team agreed that a sensitivity analysis was needed to model the impact of different planning assumptions on future bed need and to evaluate the magnitude of renovation or construction. They also wanted to look at the relationship between high-bed need and low-bed need scenarios and the resulting number of private patient rooms that could be available. |
| In the News |
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Hospitals Are Adding Complementary and Alternative Services
 In response to patient demand, hospitals are integrating complementary and alternative medicine services with the conventional services they typically provide according to a survey released last fall by Health Forum, the American Hospital Association subsidiary that publishes Hospitals and Health Networks. According to the survey, 37 percent of responding hospitals indicated they offer one or more complementary and alternative medicine therapies, up from 26.5 percent in 2005.
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| Trendline |
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Planning a More "Virtual" Center of Excellence
 For several decades, healthcare organizations have been developing Centers of Excellence to better compete for market share, research dollars, philanthropy, and scarce subspecialists in specific programs. Promoting a specific program within the healthcare organization's broader portfolio of services helps to attract the critical mass and resources required to make it successful.
From a facility planning perspective, decisions to develop specific Centers of Excellence are complicated. Historically, these centers were envisioned as freestanding facilities with the name prominently displayed on the building's facade. Before high-speed Internet/Intranet connections, this concept was promoted to improve collaboration and communication among the healthcare providers as well as to enhance customer service. Healthcare organizations are increasingly looking for more cost-effective ways to achieve a similar result while spending fewer capital dollars. Read about new planning concepts >> |
| Technology |
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The Future of Surgery Is Here Now
 The past two decades have witnessed a revolutionary transition in surgical technique and technology. Traditionally, surgeries had been performed in the open manner, in which large incisions were required for the surgeon to plainly observe and manipulate the surgical field. These incisions inevitably created significant patient trauma and extended recovery time. Approximately 20 years ago, surgeons began practicing a new approach to performing surgery, an approach that came to be known as minimally invasive surgery, or MIS. During this era, tiny cameras in instruments called endoscopes or laparoscopes were introduced. In the late 1990s, another evolutionary stage in the development of surgical technique was achieved with the application of robotics to surgical technology.
At the forefront of this new era, Intuitive Surgical introduced the da Vinci Surgical SystemŽ which is now used worldwide and at medical centers throughout the U.S. It is the only commercially available technology that can provide the surgeon with the intuitive control, range of motion, fine tissue manipulation capability and 3-D visualization characteristic of open surgery, while simultaneously allowing the surgeon to work through tiny incisions typical of minimally invasive surgery. Read how it works >> | |
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A Space Planning Guide For Healthcare Facilities
SECOND EDITION
Current Trends.
State-of-art planning methodologies.
Industry benchmarks and rules-of-thumb.
Quick. Efficient. Effective.
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Rule-of-Thumb |
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Estimating the Space Required for Inpatient Nursing Units |
The following guidelines can be used to develop preliminary "order of magnitude" space estimates for various types of inpatient nursing units.
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A Note About Beds |
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What About Same-Day Stay and Observation Beds? |
The forecasting of beds that are used for "observation" with a length of stay generally less than 24 hours varies from one organization to the next. Nursing staff will often take issue with bed forecasts that fail to account for this growing group of patients that typically occupy inpatient beds.
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From the Editor |
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A decision to expand or replace its inpatient nursing units is probably the most difficult that any healthcare organization makes considering that this starts a chain reaction of events and involves a long-range commitment of dollars, staff time, and operational disruption. The case study in this issue provides an example of how an organization balances uncertain market conditions with the desire to upgrade its inpatient accommodations.
I welcome your comments or ideas for future issues.
Cynthia Hayward Editor
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