Keeping Healthcare Workers Safe During a Pandemic: Evaluating Doffing Area Design for Safer Removal of Personal Protective Equipment.

ObjectiveThis study proposes a user-centered methodology to quantify the design affordances of doffing spaces, focusing on the safety and efficiency of healthcare workers (HCWs).BackgroundDoffing personal protective equipment (PPE) poses a significant challenge for healthcare workers (HCWs) due to the high risk of self-contamination. The physical design of the doffing area plays an important role in ensuring safety during this process.

Understanding Experience of Patients With Highly Infectious Diseases During Extended Isolation: A Design Perspective.

Objectives: This study aimed to develop a better understanding of the unique needs of patients with highly infectious diseases and their perceptions of being placed in isolation. We explore the subjective experiences of patients treated for Ebola in a biocontainment unit (BCU) and the healthcare personnel who cared for them.

Background: The 2014 Ebola outbreak and the COVID-19 pandemic have brought to focus some major challenges of caring for patients with serious infectious diseases.

Placing Users at the Center: Evaluating Exam Room Design for Improved User Experience.

Objective: This article proposes a method for evaluating the design affordances of primary care exam rooms from the perspectives of users using functional scenario (FS) analysis.

Goal: This study aims to develop quantifiable criteria and spatial metrics for evaluating how exam room design supports the needs of different users. These criteria and metrics can be used in the early stages of the design process to choose between alternatives.

Healthcare design to improve safe doffing of personal protective equipment for care of patients with COVID-19.

Objective: Understand how the built environment can affect safety and efficiency outcomes during doffing of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the context of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patient care.

Study Design: We conducted (1) field observations and surveys administered to healthcare workers (HCWs) performing PPE doffing, (2) focus groups with HCWs and infection prevention experts, and (3) a with healthcare design experts.

Settings: This study was conducted in 4 inpatient units treating patients with COVID-19, in 3 hospitals of a single healthcare system.

Design Strategies for Biocontainment Units to Reduce Risk During Doffing of High-level Personal Protective Equipment.

Background: Few data exist to guide the physical design of biocontainment units, particularly the doffing area. This can impact the contamination risk of healthcare workers (HCWs) during doffing of personal protective equipment (PPE).

Methods: In phase I of our study, we analyzed simulations of a standard patient care task with 56 trained HCWs focusing on doffing of high-level PPE.

Design strategies to improve healthcare worker safety in biocontainment units: learning from ebola preparedness.

Objective: To identify ways that the built environment may support or disrupt safe doffing of personal protective equipment (PPE) in biocontainment units (BCU).

Design: We observed interactions between healthcare workers (HCWs) and the built environment during 41 simulated PPE donning and doffing exercises.

Setting: The BCUs of 4 Ebola treatment facilities and 1 high-fidelity BCU mockup.