Therapeutic ED Treatment Room

Overview

Two goals are often at the center of current care models for mental or behavioral health: safety and healing. In the Emergency Department, design has traditionally focused on safety for both patients and staff through checklists for ligature-resistance. Newer approaches place a strong emphasis on healing, as well, resulting in a therapeutic approach for a more flexible use of a Treatment Room.

Each organization will need to balance priorities to meet specific performance standards and anticipated patient acuity to establish an appropriate solution. Some organizations may decide on a universal approach - the design must be flexible enough to accommodate a range of patient acuity, including those who may be experiencing behavioral or mental health issues. Generally, the evidence base for design of the Therapeutic ED Treatment Room focuses on deinstitutionalized design aesthetic that provides a sense of being both welcoming and safe.

In these diagrams, strategies that are focused solely on safety are indicated as such with an S

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