Insights & Solutions

Enactment of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is transforming just about every aspect of healthcare delivery in order to achieve the Triple Aim goals of better care, healthier people and communities and affordable care. One of the law’s most striking and fundamental changes is the shift in reimbursement practices – moving volume to value. This presentation provides an overview of the design team implications of the ACA, such as the Hospital Consumer Assessment of the Healthcare Providers and Systems survey and the Partnership for Patients program. Learn how architects, designers and facility managers can contribute to solutions that achieve these outcomes.

In 2012, The Center for Health Design received a grant from the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) to develop a standard evidence-based tool for inpatient room design. In a three-phase process, this grant will result in design and evaluation tools for inpatient room design in Medical/Surgical Units, Adult Intensive Care Units (ICU) and Labor Delivery Recovery (LDR) and Maternity Units. The first phase of this project has been completed, resulting in a Beta-test, paper-based version of the Inpatient Room Design Checklist and POE tool for the Med/Surg Room which are shared in this presentation.

While discussion of facility design and healthcare reform often focuses on the patient experience of noise and cleanliness as measured by the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey, design is also a factor in reform-based outcome targets.  

HCAHPS scores related to noise in the hospital environment are typically among the lowest. Acoustic intervention packages implemented by healthcare organizations are often a combination of built environment and operational measures.  

This tool provides healthcare designers and professionals with ideas on how to address the issue of noise in facility design.

Learn about: how one hospital’s emergency room pilot project increased patient satisfaction, the standards developed post-pilot to decrease noise transfer to other areas of the hospital, and why having design changes on paper may not be enough.

Learn about: using green cleaners to improve patient satisfaction scores around the perception of cleanliness, the negative health impacts associated with traditional cleaning products, and the healthier interiors challenge to reduce the use of harmful chemicals.

Learn about: the ways facilities can maximize reimbursements in light of healthcare reform mandates, the important work architects and designers can do to help with the implications of the Affordable Care Act and tools and resources that are available to help understand the connection between design and outcomes.

Learn about: the key cleanliness issues facing the healthcare industry today, the issues that drive patient perceptions about cleanliness, and the ways architects and designers can help improve perceptions of cleanliness.