Big Growth Needs Big Data

As hospitals continually grow to meet the demands of advances in medicine and technology, there is a desire for facilities to become leaner, more flexible, and efficient, without compromising the quality of care. Benchmarking, when integrated into the design process, provides the means to confidently design right-sized facilities by utilizing key metrics to baseline and optimal targets for performance and outcomes (McCabe, 2001). Several benchmarking programs developed by architecture firms and industry-wide organizations, such as the Construction Industry Institute (CII), capture these metrics as a means for evaluation, assessing how a facility’s design and construction performs against other industry leaders across the United States. In conjunction with the CII Health Care Benchmarking Program, a study of 32 medical/surgical inpatient units and 60 inpatient rooms was conducted to identify areas of achievement, improvement, and opportunities to optimize space and operational efficiency throughout the design phases of a project.