Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Renovation: The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center 1975-1976

Abstract

The renovation of the neonatal intensive care unit at The New York Hospital has served to test several new ideas about the design of intensive care facilities for infants. Our experience has supported our original feelings that smaller rooms rather than large open spaces offer significant advantages to both staff and families of patients. The radial arrangement of beds around a central supply module has concentrated our available floor space immediately around the patient's bed while providing convenient access to virtually all supplies used in infant care with a minimum of labor devoted to stock maintenance. The anticipation of our relationships with supportive services such as radiology and biochemistry has allowed us to integrate these functions smoothly into the design of the unit in such a way that service and patient care are generally improved as a result of this advance planning. In short, the design has proved conceptually sound but shares flaws that many units before ours have recognized. You cannot have too much storage space or too much floor space. In general, this design has vindicated our original concept that facility design should offer unique solutions to individual problems. It is difficult to generalize about what will and what will not work in a particular setting. But, in general, careful consideration and good planning are excellent investments in the future success of a design for a new ICU or a facility renovation.