Book Title: Irwin and Rippe’s Intensive Care Medicine, 8e
Book Editors: Richard S. Irwin, Craig M. Lilly, Paul H. Mayo and James M. Rippe
Publisher: Wolters Kluwer, 2017
Chapter Title: Intensive Care Unit Design: Current Standards and Future Trends
Chapter Authors: Diana C. Anderson, Neil A. Halpern
Except: Hospital-based intensivist administrators at some point in their careers may be asked to participate in designing new or renovating existing ICUs. For simplicity of presentation we have divided this chapter into five sections; the ICU design process, the ICU patient room, central clinical, visitor and staff support and administrative areas, ICU informatics, and future trends. While we classify these areas separately, they are indeed heavily interrelated.
Healthcare and design are actually very complex processes that must accommodate and address continuously evolving guidelines and regulatory standards. Several core principles should guide ICU-specific design.
Link to Purchase Irwin and Rippe’s Intensive Care Medicine, 8e:
Intensive Care Unit Design: Current Standards and Future Trends Book Chapter
Publication: Critical Care Nursing Quarterly
Publication Reference: 2018 Jan/Mar;41(1):60-67
Authors: Diana C. Anderson, Ashley A. Jackson, Neil A. Halpern
Advanced informatics systems can help improve health care delivery and the environment of care for critically ill patients. However, identifying, testing, and deploying advanced informatics systems can be quite challenging. These processes often require involvement from a collaborative group of health care professionals of varied disciplines with knowledge of the complexities related to designing the modern and “smart” intensive care unit (ICU). In this article, we explore the connectivity environment within the ICU, middleware technologies to address a host of patient care initiatives, and the core informatics concepts necessary for both the design and implementation of advanced informatics systems.
Publication: Critical Care Nursing Quarterly
Publication Reference: 2018 Jan/Mar;41(1):3-9
Authors: D. Kirk Hamilton, Sandy M. Swoboda, Jin-Ting Lee, Diana C. Anderson
There is controversy today about whether decentralized intensive care unit (ICU) designs featuring alcoves and multiple sites for charting are effective. There are issues relating to travel distance, visibility of patients, visibility of staff colleagues, and communications among caregivers, along with concerns about safety risk. When these designs became possible and popular, many ICU designs moved away from the high-visibility circular, semicircular, or box-like shapes and began to feature units with more linear shapes and footprints similar to acute bed units. Critical care nurses on the new, linear units have expressed concerns. This theory and opinion article relies upon field observations in unrelated research studies and consulting engagements, along with material from the relevant literature. It leads to a challenging hypothesis that criticism of decentralized charting alcoves may be misplaced, and that the associated problem may stem from corridor design and unit size in contemporary ICU design. The authors conclude that reliable data from research investigations are needed to confirm the anecdotal reports of nurses. If problems are present in current facilities, organizations may wish to consider video monitoring, expanded responsibilities in the current buddy system, and use of greater information sharing during daily team huddles. New designs need to involve nurses and carefully consider these issues.
Publication: Health Environments Research & Design Journal, Letter to the Editor
Publication Reference: 2017, Vol. 10(5) 162-164
Author: Diana C. Anderson, MD, MArch, Ken Trinder, Kate Mitchell, and Erica Mitchell
View Article
Excerpt: Currently, there are two materials that qualify as preventive biocidal surfaces. Copper and copper alloys are one material. There is now an additional material that suspends cuprous oxide in a polymer, resulting in an equally efficacious substance that can be used both as a slab and as injection-molded shapes. Distinguishing itself from copper alloys, the cuprous oxide in a polymer looks and feels like any other synthetic quartz surface with a smooth, natural stone appearance, without rusting or oxidizing, and fabricates like any other hard surface, with lower cost implication.
For more information, read more about EOS Surfaces here.
Letters to the Editor, Peer-Reviewed Publications
Publication: The Medical Futurist Website & Newsletter
Publication Date: June 6, 2017
Authors: Dr. Bertalan Mesko (The Medical Futurist) & Dr. Diana Anderson (The Dochitect)
View article
Excerpt: A simple, round table with a desktop computer and a projector, where the patient and the doctor have their friendly chat. Whenever an examination is necessary, they cross the “blue line” in the room indicating the “boundaries of the clinic” elegantly. It’s definitely not rocket science, but the patient satisfaction index is soaring. What’s the secret?
Publication: Intensive Care Medicine Journal
Publication Reference: Published online March 17, 2017
Author: Neil A. Halpern, Diana C. Anderson, Jozef Kesecioglu
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Some questions, but no answers yet: will illnesses, diagnostics and therapies be very different in 2050 than today? Will acute or chronic organ failure, immune or genetic problems, or sepsis be addressed with supportive care or bioartificial organ replacements, primary organ regeneration or other interventions at the genetic, cellular or immunologic levels? What will technology, connectivity and informatics advances look like? The answers to these questions will all ultimately impact intensive care unit (ICU) design going forward.
Click here to read more about Dochitect’s vision for the future of ICU design.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Book Title: Principles of Adult Surgical Critical Care
Book Editors: Niels D. Martin, Lewis J. Kaplan
Publisher: Springer, 2016
Chapter Title: Contemporary ICU Design
Chapter Authors: Diana C. Anderson, Neil A. Halpern
Except: The design of an intensive care unit (ICU) is a complex process and requires a multidisciplinary group of professionals. In 2010, there were approximately 6,100 ICUs with over 104,000 beds in the 3,100 acute care hospitals in the United States. ICU design itself is continuously evolving as new guidelines and regulatory standards are developed, clinical models are changing, and medical technologies are advancing. It is highly probable that hospital-based intensivist leaders will be asked at some point in their careers to participate in efforts to design new ICUs or renovate existing ones. This chapter provides an overview to a wide array of design issues and is divided into three sections: an overview of ICU design, confi guring the ICU space, and future trends in ICU design.
Link to Purchase Book and/or Contemporary ICU Design Chapter:
Contemporary ICU Design Book Chapter
Publication: Health Environments Research & Design Journal, Letter to the Editors
Publication Reference: 2016, Vol. 10(1) 172-173
Author: Diana C. Anderson, MD, MArch
View article
Excerpt: Architects and hospital designers have a duty to minimize the stress associated with illness and hospitalization through environmental factors, but also have the opportunity to advocate for the mental and physical needs of the physicians and healthcare workers themselves. While patients generally can spend days to weeks in healthcare settings, clinical staff may spend countless days, nights, and years working in windowless spaces.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Book Title: Handbook of Intensive Care Organization and Management
Book Editor: Andrew Webb
Publisher: Imperial College Press
Publication Date: July 28, 2016
Chapter Title: Design and Role of the Intensive Care Unit
Chapter Authors: Neil A. Halpern and Diana C. Anderson
Key Points
ICU-specific design is a complex process and requires a multidisciplinary team which includes both clinical and expert design-based professionals.
Link to Purchase Book:
Handbook of Intensive Care Organization and Management Book Chapter
