Every year in the U.S., there are about 140 million visits to hospital emergency departments (EDs), but only 13 percent of those visits end up in a hospital admission, Colby Dearman, principal and studio practice leader for healthcare at HKS Inc. (Atlanta), told attendees at the 2024 Healthcare Design Conference + Expo, Oct. 5-8 in Indianapolis.

Of the remaining 87 percent of ED visits, on average 50 percent are low-acuity and do not require the same kind of resource environments to be treated, he said.

During the HCD Conference session “Optimizing Emergency Care: Smart Strategies for Affordable, Compact, and High-Performance ED Treatment Stations,” a panel of speakers discussed ED models and layouts that can help optimize patient flow with the ED.

Joining Dearman in the presentation were Ethan Hopkins, medical planner at HKS, and University of Florida Health Jacksonville’s Sandra McDonald, director of hospital safety and emergency preparedness, and Nicole Scotty, division director of nursing and critical care services.

Role of low-acuity treatment stations in EDs

Using a new ED and trauma center on the hospital’s campus in Jacksonville, Fla., as a case study, the speakers shared plans for the incorporation of low-acuity treatment stations (LATS) to create a faster track to treatment and discharge for low-acuity patients.

LATS are smaller than a typical exam room (with a minimum floor area of 40 square feet) to accommodate vertical patients who do not require a bed, according to the Facility Guidelines Institute.

The UF Health Jacksonville Leon L. Haley, Jr. M.D. Trauma Center is currently under construction and expected to be completed in 2026. The incorporation of LATS as supplemental treatment spaces in the new ED is expected to significantly reduce door-to-room and door-to-doc times for those low-acuity patients.

In a past project for Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Hopkins said LATS helped to reduce door-to-room times by 13 percent and door-to-doc times by 11 percent.

“It’s all about the right patient in the right place at the right time,” Hopkins said. “Not everything can be done in that space, but for a large percentage of the patients coming to an ED, these are viable treatment spaces.”

ED space planning considerations

LATS are half the size of a typical exam room at roughly 6 feet wide by 8 feet deep, and the treatment spaces are typically separated by curtains, privacy screens, or partitions. “They can work in triage, fast-track, step-down care, and results waiting spaces,” Hopkins said.

There are some important considerations for designers and architects looking to incorporate LATS into an ED project, according to the speakers. “From a life-safety perspective, the treatment station can’t be opened to a corridor. A strategy for that could be to make sure there’s a care suite that it’s part of,”  Hopkins said.

Additionally, the layout of these treatment stations should ensure privacy. For example, having two LATS directly across from each other, so that patients could look across and be eye-to-eye, could cause discomfort, he said.

Because of the smaller size of these treatment stations, Hopkins said, it’s important to ensure that the LATS are laid out in a way that caregivers can have quick access to the supplies they need. Additional considerations to support these spaces include building in appropriate plumbing counts, access to specialty storage carts, and power receptacles.

More coverage of the 2024 HCD Conference + Expo is featured in Healthcare Design’s November/December issue. For more conference new and updates, go here.

Robert McCune is senior editor at Healthcare Design magazine and can be reached at [email protected].