A National Look at Hospital Bed Tower Design

A Comparison of Hospital Area Measurement in Germany, Canada, Australia, and the United States: Part 1

Objectives:

This article compares national standards for area measurements of healthcare facilities in four countries and examines the risks and differences that can arise when comparing building areas of healthcare facilities internationally.

Background:

In the planning and management of healthcare facilities, the utilization and comparison of building floor areas plays a major role. Differences in terminology, classification, and methodology help to reduce planning and cost risks when applied on a local and national level. The proper allocation of building floor space is vital in the design of room programs, determination of floor space, construction costs, and operating costs.

Methods:

Each of the four hospital area measurement standards is compared to discern similarities and differences.

Results:

Most countries use a three-tier system of hospital area measurement: building gross area, department gross area, and department net area. Few differences were found between country standards for department area, though the German standards do not fully address this tier. Variation is found in whether a country includes certain functions in the hospital area—such as research space, shell space, or central energy plants—which can have a significant impact on the overall hospital area.

Conclusions:

This article informs further development of individual country standards and highlights principles to consider for international hospital area comparison.

Space Use and the Physical Attributes of Acute Care Units: A Quantitative Study

This article shares the results of a quantitative analysis of the space use and physical attributes of 140 acute care units (ACU) completed since 2007.

OBJECTIVE

To fill a gap in the literature with respect to the state of practice for ACU design over the study period by investigating relationships among the physical characteristics and density of completed ACUs.

BACKGROUND

Robust industry interest about the topic-further agitated by the dearth of large-scale quantitative research regarding ACU space use-motivated completion of the study.

METHOD

Through extraordinary collaboration by participating firms, floor plans of 140 new ACUs from the study period were gathered, systematically measured, and then analyzed.

RESULTS

Structural bay size, nurse station location, and the number of beds per unit were found to have significant relationships to ACU floor-gross area per bed. Additionally, nine significant associations among the explanatory variables were found, including moderate relationships among bay size, nurse station location, room handedness, and toilet room placement.

CONCLUSION

The results suggest that project design teams tend to bundle key physical attributes together when planning ACUs. Moreover, density increases resulting from bay size reduction diminish as the bay size drops below 31'. Any impacts resulting from the major external events demarking the last decade were not sufficient to appreciably affect ACU density. Lastly, those concerned with increasing density and controlling ACU floor gross area are alerted to explore design options featuring bay sizes of approximately 30' in conjunction with a centralized nursing model containing more than 32 beds per unit.