ECRI Institute Helps Hospitals Design Spaces for Current and Future Technologies

New equipment planning white paper offers high tech guidance on building or renovating operating rooms, imaging centers, and clinical labs

PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., Aug. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- New and emerging technologies drive patient flow, volume, and revenue in today's hospitals, but if they are not carefully planned for, they can create a tremendous financial and operational disruption. ECRI Institute, an independent nonprofit organization that researches the best approaches to improving patient care, has released a new white paper, The Future of Healthcare Design: Navigating the Challenges of Advancing Technology in Patient Care Settings, to help hospital facility managers and architects better understand the challenges of designing patient care spaces to accommodate current and future technologies. Among these challenges are budget and space constraints, unwieldy construction costs, and keeping up with rapidly evolving devices and equipment.

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In the paper, available for free download, ECRI Institute's medical equipment planning experts offer recommendations for planning and designing patient care areas, specifically operating rooms, imaging areas, and clinical labs—settings that not only require the most advanced technology, but represent the bulk of a healthcare provider's capital budget requests.

"It is imperative that facilities make technology-related decisions early in the design process, because infrastructure requirements and associated operational activities may cause them to incur additional costs or delay a building project schedule," states ECRI Institute's Michael Linehan, director, medical equipment planning. "Providers need to ensure that the medical equipment planning service they choose is well-versed in current and future equipment technologies to accurately plan their impact on infrastructure."

ECRI Institute advises healthcare organizations to be flexible by planning for future space needs as equipment upgrades become available, and designing with an eye on technology trends, such as moving imaging systems into non-traditional areas of the hospital. For example, it is not uncommon to see computed tomography (CT) scanners and MRI scanners moving out of radiology and into emergency or radiation oncology departments.

To learn more and download the full white paper, The Future of Healthcare Design: Navigating the Challenges of Advancing Technology in Patient Care Settings, visit ECRI Institute's Web site at:  www.ecri.org/designchallenges. 

For more information about ECRI Institute's medical equipment planning services, visit www.ecri.org/mep or contact Michael Linehan, director, medical equipment planning, at (610) 825-6000, ext. 5460, or [email protected]. To learn more about ECRI Institute, contact us at [email protected], (610) 825-6000, or 5200 Butler Pike, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462-1298 USA.

About ECRI Institute
ECRI Institute, a nonprofit organization, dedicates itself to bringing the discipline of applied scientific research to healthcare to discover which medical procedures, devices, drugs, and processes are best to enable improved patient care. As pioneers in this science for nearly 45 years, ECRI Institute marries experience and independence with the objectivity of evidence-based research. Strict conflict-of-interest guidelines ensure objectivity. ECRI Institute is designated an Evidence-based Practice Center by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. ECRI Institute PSO is listed as a federally-certified Patient Safety Organization by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources. Find ECRI Institute on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ECRIInstitute) and on Twitter (www.twitter.com/ECRI_Institute). For more information, visit https://www.ecri.org.

SOURCE ECRI Institute