Gary L. Vance, AIA, ACHA Vice President Continuum Solutions Consulting

Increasing the total number of private patient rooms has become an accepted trend in inpatient facilities and a marked reversal from the focus on outpatient services in the 1980s and 1990s. This initiative is driven by the needs of the patients and caregivers. Hospitals are responding to the consumer aspects of healthcare: providing more space, upgrading interiors, modernizing toilets/showers, and providing family friendly environments. To appeal to the caregivers, healthcare facilities are responding to the need for technology improvements, nursing proximity, more space for equipment, and mechanical/electrical upgrades.

However, simply responding to this trend without using a comprehensive planning methodology (CPM) could cause hospitals and healthcare systems to miss their patient room needs over the next decade. This comprehensive methodology for private patient rooms, which combines numerous independent planning methodologies and aggregates them, does the following:

• Considers the aging of the population and baby boomer healthcare needs
  
• Considers the demographics and community factors of the service areas
  
• Uses bed demand analysis to determine additional bed needs
  
• Analyzes the current private and semi-private patient room ratio/percentages
  
• Analyzes the current and projected average age of private and semi-private patient rooms

By using this comprehensive methodology to examine and analyze the private patient room planning trend, hospitals and healthcare systems can ensure that they will be prepared to meet the community and patient needs through 2012.

Photos/Plans

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