Fact or Fiction?

•Designs utilizing Universal Patient Rooms accommodate change more readily.
•Designs which reduce nurse-travel distances increase staff efficiencies.
•Designs which are patient-centered lead to better clinical outcomes.


All of us have heard statements similar to those listed above. Many of us have heard these types of statements so often in the course of our work that we have come to accept them at face value as predetermined truths, whether or not such truth was actually supported by clear research evidence. As the "Urban Legends" of modern healthcare design, our dogmatic application of such design strategies without understanding what is design fact versus design fiction, will often lead to unintended results which fail to meet the expectations of practitioner and user alike.

But how can you tell the leading edge of design from the bleeding edge? What exactly is myth and what is the reality? Today, we are fortunate through the knowledgebase derived in Evidenced-Based Design to have an unprecedented tool to debunk many modern Urban Legends that continue to circulate throughout the Hallowed Halls of healthcare design. Knowledge which can empower the architect in their design approach to deliver the required return on their Client's facility investment.