Sixth in a series of excerpts from the free executive guide, “Acuity Adaptability: Innovative Planning and Design for Responsive Healthcare Delivery.” 

By Mike Zorich and Corey Gaarde 

More demand and innovations toward acuity adaptability can be expected soon due to a variety of current and future forces affecting healthcare. These forces include: 

COVID-19. Several direct and indirect ramifications of the 2020 pandemic throw the benefits of acuity adaptability into stark relief. By transferring patients immediately upon admittance to a single room where they will receive all care until discharge, there is little or no risk that they will infect other patients or healthcare personnel during multiple transfers from one unit to another.  

Maximizing resources, minimizing costs. Healthcare facilities operate on notoriously slim margins. Acuity adaptability may present facilities with opportunities to retrofit their facilities for greater efficiency so that no space is wasted, no equipment is extraneous, time wasted in transit and the attendant patient injuries suffered are reduced, and the number of nurse hours available is increased. 

Business resilience and continuity. Acuity adaptability empowers facilities and the doctors and nurses who staff them to adapt to changing community needs, including the ability to pivot to meet pandemic conditions and not see entire units or care sectors shut down. 

In the next blog, we identify the desired outcomes of design to help determine if acuity adaptability is worth the effort. 

Previous: Acuity Adaptability: Settings that benefit 

Next: Acuity Adaptability: Identifying desired outcomes 

For an unabridged version of this content, download the executive guide, “Acuity Adaptability: Innovative Planning and Design for Responsive Healthcare Delivery.” A recorded webinar on the topic is also available.