TUESDAY, Aug. 26 (HealthDay News) -- New hospital developments should be based on single-patient rooms because they offer the best standard of care for patients, according to an article published in the Aug. 27 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Michael E. Detsky, M.D., and Edward Etchells, M.D., of the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada, write that in the last 50 years most new hospitals have been built based on single, double and four-bed rooms, and that single rooms maximize patient privacy, dignity and safety. Single rooms reduce the need for patient transfers due to infection control and have the potential to offer care regardless of patient acuity, including intensive care and palliative care, in the same setting.
The disadvantages of single-patient rooms are primarily inconvenience to staff and increased new construction costs, but single-patient designs do not necessarily mean higher costs overall, the authors write.
"Clinicians should advocate for single-patient rooms in any new hospital construction, expansion, renovation or redesign," the authors write. "Money spent on capital costs to improve patient care may be more efficient than money spent on changing hospital culture and the behavior and attitudes of health professionals. It is not necessary to wait 50 years for existing hospital structures to deteriorate before the full potential of single-patient rooms can be realized."
Abstract
Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)
