MHA Society for Health Care Engineers & Facility Managers

Nurses' input in hospital designs helps ensure quality

Nurses' insights on the architectural design of hospitals and health care facilities help promote quality of care and patient safety, a publication of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation suggests. Cheryl Herbert, RN, for instance, helped ensure that evidence-based features such as hand-washing sinks and single-bed patient rooms will be included in the construction of Dublin Methodist Hospital in Ohio.

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AHA website provides roadmap for hospital sustainability programs

The American Hospital Association's American Society for Healthcare Engineering, Association for the Healthcare Environment, and American Society for Healthcare Resource and Materials Management on Dec. 10 launched the Sustainability Roadmap for Hospitals, a website providing information and tools that can help reduce the environmental footprint of health care facilities. The website complements the AHA's Executive Primer on Hospital Environmental Sustainability, launched in July.

While the Primer provides health care executives with information about sustainability issues relevant to hospitals, the Roadmap is focused towards hospital managers, staff and designers of health care facilities. Users are encouraged to contribute suggestions, sample documents and case studies to the website.

"Hospitals have long understood the special role they play as environmental stewards in their community," said AHA President and CEO Rich Umbdenstock. "Today's launch of the Roadmap website will be a useful tool and one more resource available to those striving to reduce their environmental footprint."