Announcements

AHRQ releases a new DVD about designing hospitals for safety and quality

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has released a new DVD that provides evidence to help hospital officials and architects design safer, high quality hospitals. This new two-part DVD illustrates the value of evidence-based hospital design-a phrase used to describe how the physical design of health care environments affects patients and staff.

The first part entitled, Transforming Hospitals: Designing for Safety and Quality, gives a brief 13-minute overview and provides current examples of how evidence-based hospital design increases patient safety, satisfaction, and quality of care that results in higher staff satisfaction, recruitment, and retention.

The second part, Transforming Hospitals: Three Case Studies, is 36 minutes in length and features the experiences of three hospitals that incorporated principles of evidence-based hospital design into new construction and renovation projects. These facilities include Griffin Hospital, Derby, Connecticut; Holy Cross Hospital, Silver Spring, Maryland; and Woodwinds Health Campus, Woodbury, Minnesota.

With an estimated $250 billion construction boom in the hospital industry over the next 10 years, the DVD is expected to be of significant interest to hospital executives and architects planning or implementing construction and renovation projects.

For more information on Transforming Hospitals: Designing for Safety and Quality or AHRQ's research in evidence-based hospital design, visit the AHRQ Web site at: http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/transform.htm.

Copies of the DVD (AHRQ Publication No. 07-0076-DVD) are available from the AHRQ Publications Clearinghouse.

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