Cardiac Care Design

As heart disease skyrockets become top killer in the United States today, healthcare architects are increasingly challenged to keep up with present and future innovations in the rapidly expanding field of cardiac care, which is using state-of-the-art technology to prevent and fight the disease. 

The number of cardiac specialists is growing along with the number of hospitals performing cardiac surgery. Healthcare facility designers must consider highly specialized amenities such as comparative care delivery methods, design concepts for cardiac cath labs and cardiac operating rooms, cardiac acute and critical care units, chest pain units, and neonatal and pediatric cardiology.

Patient-centered care continues to lead the healthcare industry, pushing facilities designers to consider the patient’s experience even more than before. The desire of many hospitals for greater levels of efficiency have led healthcare architects to plan for consolidated cardiac services, and bringing services to the patient, which leads to different configurations of the traditional patient room.

As the aging U.S. population faces increasing valvular heart disease, patients are less symptomatic, meaning preventive work is minimal if not non-existent. Minimally invasive valve surgery, however, boasts a 0.5 percent mortality rate in addition to a shorter length of stay in the hospital.

Technological advances mean that more and more facilities are becoming paperless and filmless through digitization. Particularly in Cardiac Care, improved images and 3D imaging allow for less invasive surgery. Designers and planners have also seen an increased preference for integrated cardiovascular suites and operating rooms.

Also influencing cardiac care facilities design is the recent upsurge in the use of robotics. Because the use of robotics in surgery allows the surgeon to sit at a console and view a 3D image while using robotic arms, design for facilities must account for increased wiring, and space for equipment. As smaller incisions mean that patients will heal faster, cardiac care facilities must now also incorporate necessary services for rapid recovery.

To continue to be competitive in today’s market, hospital facilities now need to create space for state-of-the-art equipment, while leaving room for the equipment needs that may result from future technological advances. Currently, high-speed CAT scanners, robotic equipment, and 3D imagery technologies require increased space and additional power sources.

As knowledge of complicated and once risky procedures such as coronary bypass operations increases, these operations are becoming safer, and recovery improved. Cardiac care in the 21^st century is a primary need of the population, and will require increased adaptation of existing facilities to meet the new methods of cardiac treatment and care.