Relationship between hospital ward design and healthcare-associated infection rates: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Stiller, Andrea; Salm, Florian; Bischoff, Peter; Gastmeier, Petra

Providing hand rub dispensers in patient rooms at the point of care can be a contributing factor for hand hygiene compliance. The proper procedure of hand disinfection has been proven to be one of the most effective infection control measures, however attaining compliance is a challenge [7, 8] . In addition to the number of patients occupying in one single room, the amount of space assigned for each patient within this room is also an important factor. Theoretically speaking, the less space that is provided for patients and healthcare workers within a room, the higher the risk for the transmission of pathogens and for breaches in infection prevention measures possibly leading to an increase in infections. Current directives vary in their recommended square footage for patient rooms: 18.58 m 2 per bed on critical care units (ICU) in the United States, 25 m 2 for single-patient rooms or 40 m 2 for multiple-patient rooms on German ICU's [4, 9] . The FGI recommends 13.94 m 2 per patient bed in singlepatient rooms and 11.15 m 2 per patient bed in multiplepatient rooms on critical care units [4] . Germany has not established guidelines for medical/surgical units, whereas the FGI proposes 11.15 m 2 per patient bed in singlepatient rooms and 9.29 m 2 in multiple-patient rooms [4] .