Research Article: Dr Paul Barach & Bill Rostenberg

Design of Cardiac Surgery
Operating Rooms and the Impact
of the Built Environments

Dr Paul Barach & Bill Rostenberg

This chapter is intended to provide a common language to enable both medical
and design professionals to improve their dialog and collaborative work
processes when designing pediatric cardiac care settings. This approach will
help provide knowledge that can be applied to new construction or renovation
of cardiovascular operating rooms and cardiac catherisation laboratories. It is not uncommon during the course of healthcare facility design for numerous
people to use common terms that have different meanings for each person and
community, and then be surprised to later discover that their conversations
were about different meanings that led to a different understanding and
mindset.
This chapter is not only about architectural design and planning, although
that is its primary focus. Its underlying message is that the design of cardiovascular
surgical procedure rooms or suites – regardless of how innovative
they are or how much advanced medical technology they contain – will
likely only be successful if they are closely aligned with the evolving
changes in models of care, medical practices, local culture, politics and a
concern for safety and high reliability of care. Cardiovascular spaces must
also be designed with strategies that enable them to constantly evolve and be prepared for future changes in care models and technology requirements.