Hospital Patient Room Ergonomics: Getting It Right for All Hospital Staff Working in These Spaces

Details

• Personal Author:
  Evans K ; Lavender SA ; Li J ; Patterson E ; Sanders E ; Sommerich CM
• Description:
  The long term goal of this project is to reduce the physical demands, musculoskeletal injuries and discomfort experienced by healthcare workers in institutional settings. In many workplaces the awkward postures and motions exhibited by workers, and the effort required to complete work-related tasks bear a direct relationship to the layout and organization of the workspace. This is particularly true for hospital staff working in patient rooms. Given the boom in healthcare facility construction and remodeling there is an opportunity to address many of the room design parameters that create ergonomics issues for workers who provide direct patient care and other members of the hospital staff. Thus, the primary goal of this project was to create guidelines for hospital designers that address the ergonomics needs of the many different stakeholder groups working in patient rooms through a systems approach, largely driven by a participatory design process. Specifically, this project through a variety of participatory design methodologies: (1) Identified the work tasks that, due to patient room design parameters, ergonomically challenge the identified stakeholders (users); (2) Elicited stakeholder specific recommendations regarding ergonomic aspects of patient room design; (3) Identified patient room design parameters that impact the needs of patients and their visitors and family members, and elicited alterations in patient room design parameters that best support those needs; and (4) Attempted to resolve conflicts between stakeholder groups with regard to patient room design parameters, thereby, allowing for a clear set of design recommendations for patient rooms. In sum, this process has yielded a set of guidelines that should be useable and useful to designers, planners, hospital administrators, and others interested in developing ergonomic, efficient, and effective med/surg patient room designs that meet the needs of all hospital staff while at the same time meeting the needs of the patients and their visitors. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Ergonomics Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Health Personnel Hospitals Musculoskeletal Diseases Musculoskeletal System Occupational Health Safety Workplace
• Keywords:
  Health Care Facilities Health Care Personnel Health Care Workers Hospital Equipment Human Factors Engineering Injury Prevention MSD Musculoskeletal System Disorders Patient Handling Safety Engineering Work Environment Workplace Studies

  More +
• Publisher:
  Center for Health, Work & Environment at the Colorado School of Public Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  56
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20051986
• Citation:
  Proceedings of 2017 expanding research partnerships: state of the science, June 21-23, 2017, Denver, Colorado. Denver, CO: Center for Health, Work & Environment at the Colorado School of Public Health, 2017 Jun; :56
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2017
• NORA Priority Area:
  Healthcare and Social Assistance
• Performing Organization:
  The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20120701
• Source Full Name:
  Proceedings of 2017 expanding research partnerships: state of the science, June 21-23, 2017, Denver, Colorado
• End Date:
  20170630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6b90a6b50b02e2ad30f46951e9d2a9a02e0cce332247d2235db2381a4c03872fc35bfc43da8d70842454fc0f5a357b59c2236b885c8c5a2e14581b2f807b1252
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/211624/cdc_211624_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.75 MB ]