Ambulatory infusion suite: Pre- and post-occupancy evaluation

An evaluation is presented of the experience of patients, families and staff in two infusion suites. One infusion suite was a facility occupied until 2009 and the other suite was the replacement for that facility. The primary design objectives of the new facility were to support social interaction, provide opportunities for privacy and provide visual access to nature. The effectiveness of the new facility relative to the old facility with regard to these three design objectives served as the source of hypotheses for the study. Using a Likert-style survey and open-ended questions, the findings suggest that the new facility was successful at addressing these design goals. Subjects were also queried regarding whether these design objectives were important in an infusion suite. The vast majority of the respondents in the new facility indicated that social interaction, privacy and access nature were important in this setting.