Evaluation of Critical Care Space Requirements for Three Frequent and High-Risk Tasks

Spatial requirements for clinical tasks have been recommended from many sources over the past 15 years, but little empiric evidence is offered to support recommendations. This article describes a series of functional space experiments using clinical scenarios to test the spatial requirements for a bed space in a critical care setting. The analysis found that an average of 23.26 m2 was needed for a bed-to-bed transfer followed by 22.87 m2 for a resuscitation task. The overall average space requirement for the three tasks for a patient and caregiver zone (ergonomic envelope) was 22.83 m2, excluding family and hygiene zones and in-room storage.