Facilities Design

Ergonomics for Environmental Services – Design of Health Care Facilities

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Also refer to Resources about Materials Handling and more on the Maintenance Page

Design of Health Care Facilties

2010 Edition of the Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities. Available for purchase from The Facilities Guideline Institute

Access To Medical Care For Individuals With Mobility Disabilities (2010). New regulations under the Americans With Disabilities Act that describes how doctors’ offices, clinics, and other health care providers must design clinics so that people with disabilities can access care more easily, including the use of lift equipment to transfer patients from wheelchairs to exam tables.

Charting Nursings’ Future: Addressing the Quality and Safety Gap—Part III: The Impact of the Built Environment on Patient Outcomes and the Role of Nurses in Designing Health Care Facilities (2010)The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Defining stakeholder involvement in participatory design processes (2008). Vink,P., Imada, A.S., & Zink, K.J. Applied Ergonomics, 39(4):519-526.

Ergonomic Design in the Workplace in Health Care Facilities, Jocelyn Villeneuve in Handbook of Modern Hospital Safety (2009) 2nd Edition. Edited by William Charney. CRC Press

Ergonomic Tips for Resident/Patient Bathrooms (2006). Ontario Safety Association for Community & Healthcare

A Guide to Designing Workplaces for Safer Handling of People (2009) from WorkSafe Victoria

Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care and Patient Safety (2012, 2nd edition). Edited by Pascale Carayon. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Health Care at the Crossroads: Guiding Principles for the Development of the Hospital of the Future. The Joint Commission (2008).Oakbrook Terrace, Il. Retrieved from http://www.jointcommission.org.

Health Care Facilities (2010). Carr, R. Health Care Design Whole Building Design Guide from the National Institute of Building Sciences.

How to Safely Move Bariatric Patients Design Guidelines for Facilities with Bariatric Patients, from The American Institute of Architects fromWorkSafeBC

The Impact of Facility Design on Patient Safety (CH28), John Reiling, Ronda G. Hughes, Mike R. Murphy, in Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. R. Hughes (ed) 2008. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

Lessons Learned from the Design Experience (2009). Stichler, J. Journal of Nursing Administration, 38(7/8): 315-319.

Participatory Design: A Case Study of Employee Involvement in Safe Hospital Design, Steven Hecker, Marc Weinstein & Braxton Chambers in Healthcare Systems Ergonomics and Patient Safety: Proceedings on the International Conference on Healthcare Systems Ergonomics and Patient Safety (HEPS 2005), Florence, Italy, 30 March-2 April 2005, Taylor & Francis

Participatory Ergonomic Design in Health Care Facilities, Jocelyn Villeneuve(CH11) in Back Injury Among Healthcare Workers Causes, Solutions, and Impacts (2004). Edited by William Charney and Anne Hudson.  CRC Press

Patient Handling and Movement Assessments: A White Paper (2010). Discuss use of patient handling and movement equipment in a health care facility. Can also be downloaded from The Facilities Guideline Institute

Physical Environment for Provision of Nursing Care: Design for Safe Patient Handling by Jocelyn Villeneuve (CH12) in Safe Patient Handling and Movement: A Practical Guide for Health Care Professionals (2006). Audrey Nelson Editor. Springer Publishing.

Staff Nurse Engagement in Health Care Facility Design (2008). Stichler, J. Journal of Nursing Administration, 39(7/8): 305-309.

The New Zealand Patient Handling Guidelines(2003). Chapter on Facilities Design. The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), New Zealand.

A Toolkit for Redesign in Health Care(2005). Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Publication No. 05-0108-EF

Using Evidence-Based Design to Improve Outcomes (2007). Stichler, J. Journal of Nursing Administration, 37(1): 1-4.

Work Design and the Creation of Functional Workplaces in Wisdom at Work: The Importance of the Older and Experienced Nurse in the Workplace. June 2006. Hatcher, B. (editor), Bleich, M., Connolly, C., Davis, K., O’Neill, P., Hewlett, Stokley-Hill, K., Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Work and Workspace Design to Prevent and Mitigate Errors (CH 6) in Keeping Patients Safe: Transforming the Work Environment of Nurses(2004). Board on Health Care Services (HCS), Institute of Medicine (IOM)

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Other Resources

American College of Health Care Architects The Resource Center provides information directly related to healthcare facility planning, design and construction in all areas of healthcare facilities.

The American Institute of Architects

The Center for Health Design Multiple articles and white papers related to a wide variety of Health Care Design topics

Ergoweb supports the ergonomics community with industrynews, resources and a collaboration community. Various articles and resources.

Evidence-Based Healthcare Design Forum Presented at the Department of Health Systems Administration at Georgetown University 2009 - Various Presentations can be downloaded

The Nursing Institute for Healthcare Design (NIHD)

The Impact of the Built Environment on Patient Outcomes and the Role of Nurses in Designing Health Care Facilities Charting Nursings' Future: Addressing the Quality and Safety Gap—Part III, 2010. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Department of Defense Design Criteria Standard - Human Engineering MIL-STD 1472G 2012. Although applicable to design and development of military systems, equipment, and facilities, this standard is a useful ergonomics design resource that can be applied or adapted to any occupational work environment. New Jan 2013