Sizing free-standing ambulatory care facilities

This guide, written by an administrator and an industrial engineer, identifies and discusses the factors that should be considered when planning space requirements for ambulatory care facilities. The authors view sizing the ambulatory care facility as a complicated sequential task where trade-offs are made with regard to several factors: philosophy of patient care; cost; expansion requirements; patient comfort and waiting time; patient privacy; staff preferences; utilization patterns; and scurity of the faculty. It is suggested that the weight assigned to each factor when making trade-offs will be largely affected by the philosophy of patient care. The authors divide ambulatory care facilities into five functional groups: (1) basic medical services; (2) supporting medical services; (3) administrations; (4) support and service facilities; and (5) community and secondary support facilities. There are tables summarizing recommended space requirements for each of the functional groups based on mathematical models of the number and type of people using them (i.e., a typical physician is expected to see 24 patients per day). Space requirements for the whole clinic can be determined by adding together those required for each functional component. Provisions for growth and technological advances are discussed. An extensive bibliography is included.