Study Finds False Planning Aphorisms, Factors in High Construction Costs

Abstract

Planning ahead and building ancillary and diagnostic space now, capable of handling future bed expansion, doesn’t work. Subsequently when beds must be added, the other spaces also are increased. The new 100-bed hospital that plans its ancillary and diagnostic space, such as x-ray, surgery, and laboratories, for a 200-bed hospital probably will again increase these areas proportionately when it adds the second 100 beds. Unit costs are in direct proportion to space utilized. The laboratory that produces 35 annual procedures per-year-per-square-foot of laboratory space will have a cost per procedure approximately twice that of a hospital that produces 70. This seems to be an application of Parkinson’s Law: “Excessive space will be utilized by people and equipment, increasing unit costs and making future effective use of the space difficult to achieve.” These and other findings in a research study for the Hospital Survey Committee of Philadelphia showed the falsity of some aphorisms in hospital planning. The study, undertaken by John G. Steinle and Associates in conjunction with Ewing, Cole, Erdman and Eubank for architecture, engineering and related facility construction matters, had among its objectives the establishment of standard ratios of work loads to square footage for certain departments and the determination of means of reducing construction costs. The research included detailed analysis of hospitals