Hospital Inpatient Unit Design Factors Impacting Direct Patient Care Time, Documentation Time, and Patient Safety

This study attempts to discover design strategies that support increasing nurses’ patient care goals of direct patient care time, safety, and quality. This is a national-scope study of 14 inpatient units with various typologies. The study uses ratings of 135 nurses who work in these units gained from online surveys and correlated with unit typology classifications based on analysis of floor plans of the units where these nurses work. The findings discovered certain locations and qualities for support resource locations (medications, supplies, and equipment), that are most beneficial to nurses’ patient care goals, and which types and locations of collaboration locations and electronic medical record workstations are more effective. Results of the study are usable by architects in designing or remodeling effective inpatient care units.