The Patient Room: what is the ideal solution? - Cornell University

Single Patient Room and Increased Patient Safety
“The institute of Medicine reported that in the
US alone, an estimated 44,000 to 98,000
people die annually from medical
mistakes. Current estimates from the Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality place
medical errors as the eighth leading cause of
death in the U.S. That makes medicine deadlier
than highway accidents, breast cancer, or
AIDS.” (Institute of Medicine, 2001).
Performance deficit is accountable for
38% of medication errors, which may be
a result of a multi-bed room system in a
hospital, due to mix-ups and distractions.
Evidence-based design has put a great deal of effort into studying the
effect single-patient rooms have on the ultimate safety of the patient.
Several of the most impressive solutions researchers have found that
private rooms provide are increased safety in regards to slips, trips
and falls due to the close proximity of the patient bed and ensuite
bathroom in a single patient room. Another is the reduced
medication errors staff are likely to make in a single-patient room
because they are less prone to mixing up medications between
patients, they are less distracted by other patients, and identical
layouts (or “handedness”) of the rooms make it easy and efficient to
find their tools and equipment (Fairhall, 2010).
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