Patient and family description of receiving care in acuity adaptable care model

To explore patient and family perspectives of hospital care in an acuity adaptable care model implemented in an urban, public safety-net hospital.

Specialty care units result in reactionary bed management. Changes in acuity generate costly, disruptive, intra-hospital patient transfers, which negatively affect clinical outcomes while increasing nurse workload. The acuity adaptable care model is a universal bed model structured to support patients in one room while providing staff, equipment and other resources across varying levels of acuity.

Qualitative descriptive methods were used to analyse the narratives of a purposive sample of patients and family members about receiving care in an acuity adaptable care delivery model.

Three content areas emerged from the narratives and were categorized as feeling safe, perceiving continuity of care and valuing family, which culminated in a sense of comfort and healing while in the hospital.

By bringing care services to the patient instead of taking the patient to the services, the acuity adaptable care model facilitated a perception of a healing environment for patients and family members.

The acuity adaptable care model should be considered when hospital facilities are undergoing major renovation or replacement.