by George Bischalaney, President & CEO, Eden Medical Center

A recent article about the new hospital construction asked readers the question, “Is the hospital too lavish, or is the new hospital just a reflection of modern times?” The reason the question was raised, from what I can gather, is because the new hospital will have all private rooms. This is a marked difference from our 1950s-era hospital that has mostly two-bed and some four-bed wards, shared bathrooms and a curtain for privacy.

When we began designing the new hospital, one of the first questions we asked ourselves was whether or not there would be all private rooms. It wasn’t a long discussion, and the answer was quickly determined to be yes.

The existing hospital, with its multi-bed rooms, is how hospitals were designed in the late 1940’s and early 1950s when Eden Hospital first opened. Sixty years later, the thinking regarding rooming of patients has evolved, just as every other aspect of hospital medical care has evolved.

There are compelling clinical reasons why hospitals across the country are converting to private rooms. Highest among these reasons is infection control. One can pick up any magazine or medical journal and read about the growth of bacterial adaptation to antibiotics over the past decade. In hospitals, there is an ever-increasing need to isolate infectious conditions that create a risk for other patients. Any such high risk patient requires a private room for better management of their illness and also for the safety of other patients and protection of hospital staff. This happens daily in our hospital, and it means that a two-bed ward then becomes a private room, decreasing the number of actual beds available for use. (See previous articles about the effects on comfort, efficiency and increased capacity.)

There are equally significant social needs for private rooms. Patients who are critically ill, injured or at the end of life often have many family and friends who want and need to visit for extended times. It is appropriate that these patients have privacy for the comfort of the family as well as for other patients and visitors.

Privacy and comfort are also compelling reasons for private rooms. Federal regulations to protect a patient’s privacy have changed how we design interiors and how we communicate with patients and other caregivers. But aside from being a regulatory requirement, privacy is a practical consideration every patient should have. This is very challenging to maintain in a room with two or more patients who are separated by nothing more than a thin curtain. In fact, across the country, the demand for private rooms isn’t driven by the perception of “luxury,” but by the need for privacy, dignity and respect.

There seems to be an outdated and misguided view that a private room is only for VIPs, those who can pay more, or those looking for luxury accommodations. There was a time when this may have been the case, but it is no longer true. At Eden, there is no added cost burden to a patient in a private room. And when the new hospital opens, there will be no fee or increased cost to any patient to be in a private room.

I can fairly assume that those who raise a concern about all private rooms have not been hospitalized themselves, or have never experienced a loved one at end of life in a patient room with one or more other patients. In talking with patients and families in the hospital, I have never been told that the single room was not preferred. It’s clear that people prefer privacy (see Washington Post article).

Our patients will benefit, and I believe they will be much happier as a result of the new hospital having all private rooms.