Hospital rooms to meet today’s patient’s needs: Time to upgrade.
Hospital rooms of today in many healthcare facilities are inadequate. Their design is outdated; they do not meet the needs of most patient populations, they diminish the quality of care, and in many cases impede patient safety. In some instances hospital rooms actually increase the risk of preventable injury to patients.
Several U.S. medical facilities utilize the old concept of semi-private rooms. Two patients in a room side by side each with a bedside table and a curtain that may be pulled to provide a visual barrier intermittently as needed. Typically these semi-private rooms share one common bathroom and the patients share one television which is centrally located in the view of each room occupant. The semi-private room concept offers little additional real-estate for medical equipment, provides no additional seating for family visits, allows little if any maneuvering room for hospital staff and visitors, to say nothing of the patients, and it impedes the ability of hospital staff to respond to medical emergencies. That being said it also encroaches on a patient’s privacy during a medical crisis by providing a horrific front row seat for the roommate. Having to be admitted to a hospital is not generally a positive experience. Having a front row seat and watching your roommate suffer through a cardiac arrest is deplorable.
Healthcare facilities need to upgrade their patient rooms to meet the changing demands of patients and the ever changing world of medicine. Private rooms with private bathroom facilities which include showers and a wall based retractable bedside commode should be standard amenities. Pull out beds from wall spaces to allow family members to sleep in should also be routinely added. Wireless internet access as well as Ethernet outlets should be available in each room, with a community business center offering less acutely ill patients to carry out business activities such as faxing, e-mail, and printing services during their hospitalization.
Room size should be enlarged to allow for additional medical equipment to be safely located in the room to support the needs of the patient. Routine medical supplies commonly utilized by hospital staff should be stocked in each room in cabinets with the ability to be secured, allowing better resource and time management practices.
Patients that are at high risk for falls or otherwise confused with a propensity for injury should be placed in rooms with closed circuit monitoring which can be observed continuously from a central location on each patient floor. Closed circuit monitoring systems provide an additional layer of safety for high risk patients that are utilizing bed alarms and other warning devices. There may even be the possibility of exploiting the use of motion sensors in hospital rooms that can be applied to injury prone patients.
Clearly the bottom line is that the status quo is demanding for change in the healthcare field. Not only does the application of technology need to continue with respect to medical records and the like, it also needs to be applied to the basic more rudimentary ways in which we deliver healthcare services. Today’s patients have greater needs, are more complex in nature to care for, and have extensive comorbid disease entities that create many unique care issues that need to be addressed. Conducting business as usual just doesn’t cut it any more.
About the Author
Mike Pringle is the author of Healthcare Today where he offers commentary and insight regarding today’s healthcare issues. Additionally he provides regular commentary for Red Scrubs and editorial content for Future Healthcare. He has over 20 years of nursing experience working both domestically and internationally. Mike has a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing and a Masters Degree in Public Administration with a Healthcare emphasis. He specializes in both Emergency and Critical Care Nursing. He currently works at Falmouth Hospital as a Shift Manager for the emergency department.
Hospital rooms to meet today’s patient’s needs: Time to upgrade. responds:
Posted: March 20th, 2008 at 3:37 pm →
[…] Brent Stanley wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptHospital rooms of today in many healthcare facilities are inadequate. Their design is outdated; they do not meet the needs of most patient populations, they diminish the quality of care, and in many cases impede patient safety. In some instances hospital rooms actually increase the risk of preventable injury to patients. […]