Acuity-adaptable inpatient unit

As part of a series of facility improvements focused on promoting patient outcomes, Penn State Health selected Flad to provide planning and design services to transform 25,000 square feet of seventh-floor space into a new adult intensive care unit (ICU) at Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. The renovation increases the hospital's inpatient capacity with 24 new ICU beds, while also expanding and enhancing related nurse and physician workspace, respiratory therapy, and storage space.

The reconfigured space is divided into two separate units with elevators, visitor support spaces, and shared staff support zones located in the center between the east and west wings. Each wing consists of a 12-bed, single-occupancy patient unit with a central nursing station at the core for maximized patient observation, efficient workflow, and heightened staff collaboration. The renovation included an envelope upgrade around the exterior of the seventh floor which, in addition to enhancing thermal comfort, also enabled a size reduction of the two new air handling units (AHUs) serving the program areas.

For increased flexibility, Flad's design solution offers patient room dimensions, utilities, and toilet/shower facilities that allow the rooms to flex from intensive care to medical-surgical functionality to accommodate varying needs. Specialty rooms in the unit include airborne infection isolation rooms, a protective environment room, a combination isolation room, and patient-of-size rooms. Additionally, because the construction documents phase occurred during the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, our team proposed a means to switch the AHUs to an on-demand pandemic mode. If additional negative space is needed (e.g., for patient isolation space in the event of a pandemic surge), this alternate, negative-purge setting can be used to temporarily exhaust airflow to dedicated fans on the roof.