Focus on Family-Centered Care
Perhaps the most noticeable differences in the hospital facility of the future will be those related to a change in services, design, and attitude toward providing amenities for patients and their families.
“Patient-centered care, or its close cousin—family-centered care—is a significant trend in healthcare design now, and that significantly impacts the design of facilities,” states Dr. Tingwald. “The most important aspect is having all private rooms. Almost no new construction includes shared patient rooms. The key element of this care is family involvement, and that includes families rooming in with patients. You can’t physically or psychologically do this in a shared room.”
He points out that this trend includes all room types: “It started in pediatrics, but has gone into general acute care settings, intensive care settings, and now neonatal intensive care units.”
What are the pros and cons of a move toward all private rooms? “It takes up room, but it’s proving not to be significantly more costly,” says Dr. Tingwald. “Private rooms are more expensive to build, but in the end they’re less expensive to operate. In an all-private room hospital you can increase your occupancy to 80% or even 90% because you’re not trying to match up patients by gender and age. Also, nursing isn’t moving patients to get the bed mixes right. Studies show that nurses spend up to 40% of their time in transfers. And finally, private rooms have increased market share considerably.”
Another aspect of family centered care is the addition of technologies and services that cater to patient comfort and even enjoyment. “Anything someone has at home or wants in a hotel, families and patients are demanding, including room service,” says Dr. Tingwald. “Patients can decide when and what they want to eat [within their prescribed diet], and families can order food. In some hospitals, patients can already order food using a plasma screen in their room. This is showing to be an economically viable alternative. There’s less food waste, and patients are much happier.”
You’ll also see patient rooms with plasma screen televisions and DVD players, equipped for movies on demand, educational content—even the ability for physicians to view X-rays and other diagnostics on screen, and for families waiting in the room to communicate with physicians in the operating room.