CONCORD, Calif., Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Hospital CEOs who decide to invest more money to build better hospitals in the next few years will find these costs can be quickly repaid through operational savings and increased revenue.
This is the strong position held by The Center for Health Design, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, and the authors of the lead article in the Fall 2004 issue of Frontiers of Health Services Management.
Taking the position that “better buildings” are worth the investment, authors Leonard L. Berry, Russell C. Coile, D. Kirk Hamilton, Derek Parker, David D. O’Neill, and Blair L. Sadler use evidence from The Center for Health Design’s Pebble Project research to make the case that design and building costs can be quickly repaid through operational savings and increased revenue.
They create a “Fable Hospital” -- a composite of recently built or redesigned healthcare facilities that have implemented facets of evidence- based design in their facilities. Using this data, the authors calculate that an array of design innovations, including oversized single patient rooms, variable acuity rooms, double-door bathroom access, decentralized nursing stations, additional hand-washing facilities, noise reduction measures, staff support facilities, and more -- added almost $12 million to the $240 million project.
However, their conservative estimate is that in the first year alone, savings and revenue gains in the new facility were nearly $11.5 million.
“The current healthcare building boom presents a rare opportunity to use the emerging science of evidence-based design to build better hospitals,” says Berry, the lead author of the article, a Center board member, and a Distinguished Professor of Marketing at the Mays Business School at Texas A & M University. “Better buildings can not only improve patient care, staff loyalty, medical outcomes, institutional productivity, and financial performance, but also decrease medical errors and waste.”
The Center for Health Design
CONTACT: Sara Marberry for The Center for Health Design,+1-847-475-0427, sara@saramarberry.com
Web site: http://www.healthdesign.org/