Health Facility Design and Layout

Solution Preview

Hello,

you have asked for some ideas for what to take into consideration when considering designing a health care facility. There are many types of different health care facilities so I will narrow it down by focussing on Long Term Care (LTC) or Nursing Home facilities.

When designing a LTC facility, there are many things that a designer must consider, from general comfort, to government regulations depending on where (what state or country) the facility will be built. Luckily for you you don't really need to know how to draw to design an up to date and up to code LTC facility.

Nursing homes serve patients requiring preventive, therapeutic, and rehabilitative nursing care services for non-acute, long-term conditions. Specialized clinical and diagnostic services are obtained outside the nursing home. Most residents are frail and aged, but not bedridden, although often using canes, walkers, or wheelchairs. Stays are relatively long, the majority for life. Nursing homes also care for a smaller percentage of convalescent patients of all ages. These patients are in long-term recovery from acute illnesses, but no longer require hospitalization.

Nursing homes, or sections of them, are often classified into intermediate and skilled nursing units, definitions related to Medicare/Medicaid standards. Intermediate-care facilities have just enough nursing to qualify for Medicaid; skilled nursing facilities meet the more demanding medical standards to qualify for Medicare as well as Medicaid support. The cognitively impaired are frequently housed separately in Alzheimer Related Dementia (ASD) units.

*Please note that standards vary from country to country and some items from state to state.

Nursing homes present special design challenges in that for most residents the nursing home is not just a facility, but indeed their home. The reality is that in most cases the residents will live there for the rest of their lives and, moreover, rarely leave the premises at all. The nursing home becomes their entire world in a sense. The challenge is to design a nursing home that is sensitive and responsive to long-term human needs and well-being, both physical and emotional. In addition to that, nursing homes must also be conducive to medical treatment in the same way as hospitals are while at the same time trying to maintain a home-like atmosphere.

A nursing home operates primarily in a patient-care mode rather than a medical mode. Consequently, its more important attributes are those focusing on the general well-being of its residents rather than high-tech considerations. The principal attributes of a well designed nursing home are:

I. Homelike and Therapeutic Environment

Inherent in any institutional stay is the impact of environment on recovery, and the long-term stays typical of nursing home residents greatly increase this impact. The architect and interior designer must have a thorough understanding of the nursing home's mission and its patient profile. It is especially important that the design address aging and its accompanying physical and mental disabilities, including loss of visual acuity. To achieve the appropriate nursing home environment every effort should be made to:

1. Give spaces a homelike, rather than institutional, size and scale with natural light and views of the outdoors (this means lots of windows)
2. Create a warm reassuring environment by using a variety of familiar, non-reflective finishes and cheerful, ...