Postoccupancy Evaluation of a Neighborhood Concept Redesign of an Acute Care Nursing Unit in a Planetree Hospital

Abstract

Objective: A comparative study was undertaken to survey nurses working in an acute care nursing unit before and after moving to a new hospital to investigate the impact of a nursing unit designed utilizing Planetree build criteria.

Background: The physical and emotional demands of frontline practitioners is a serious concern for patient safety and staff retention as the environmental design of nursing units can influence human errors from fatigue and interruption.

Method: A pre-move survey was conducted with acute care nurses in a conventional design nursing unit who were moving to a new facility. After the move to the new hospital design, the same survey was readministered to obtain comparative performance information. Qualitative responses were analyzed for triangulation with survey responses. Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) and Press Ganey scores were collected over a 5-year period.

Results: There were statistically significant improvements for most of the survey questions, especially for work efficiency and productivity, the design of the patient room and of support spaces, the information systems, and the environmental conditions. There were statistically significant improvements in the HCHAPS and Press Ganey survey questions.

Conclusions: The postoccupancy survey showed statistically significant improvements in most of the concerns highlighted in the pre-move survey and significant improvements in the workflow and overall satisfaction of nurses. Press Ganey results revealed all but five domains fell in the significantly improved category.

Keywords: Planetree; building performance evaluation; design; facilities management; healthcare practitioner; nurses; postoccupancy evaluation.