NICU Design Assessment – Advocate Health Care

Renae Rich (HDR)

As part of the phase 2 development process of the new neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) private room environment at Advocate Children’s Hospital, HDR conducted a design assessment survey of the completed phase 1 private-room NICU area to evaluate occupant satisfaction with various aspects of the design and receive feedback for problems to be addressed and improvements to be made in the next phase. Staff were asked about NICU environment zones including charging alcoves and caregiver, patient, and family areas. In addition, questions about satisfaction with the overall NICU design, safety and security, family centered care, and collaboration were included. A total of 110 employees were included in the survey results. Nearly all of the respondents work as nurses or other nursing staff in the NICU, and more than half of these nurses have worked at Advocate Children’s Hospital for 10 years or more. These are the people who are most familiar with the functionality of the private-room NICU as it relates to the work they do every day. Through the survey issues were identified and design for phase 2 was able to incorporate these findings.