Designing a Patient Room as a Fall Protection Strategy: The Perspectives of Healthcare Design Experts

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Design
• Patient Safety
• Geriatric Medicine

Background:

• Patient falls are a major concern, yet evidence linking room design to fall risk is limited.
• Understanding how architectural elements influence patient stability during ambulation is crucial for fall protection strategies.
• Frail and elderly patients are particularly vulnerable to falls in healthcare settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore architects' perspectives on designing patient rooms to mitigate fall risks.
• To evaluate the face validity of a predictive algorithm for assessing fall risk in room designs.
• To gather expert opinions on patient room configurations and layouts using an augmented reality model.

Main Methods:

• A design advisory council (AC) of industry experts provided input on patient room designs.
• An augmented reality model was used to visualize different room configurations and layouts.
• Expert opinions were collected through pre- and post-meeting surveys and coded using human factors/ergonomic (HF/E) design principles.
• Face validity of risk-predictive heat maps was assessed.

Main Results:

• Architects face challenges balancing competing design priorities.
• Participatory design processes can shift assumptions about fall prevention strategies.
• Subtle design changes, such as toilet orientation, can influence fall risk.
• Expert feedback confirmed the utility of the predictive algorithm and highlighted key design considerations.

Conclusions:

• Architectural design is a critical, yet under-researched, component of patient fall prevention.
• Incorporating human factors/ergonomic principles and expert feedback can lead to safer patient room designs.
• Further development of an optimal prototype room for human subject testing is warranted based on these findings.