Prevention by design: construction and renovation of health care facilities for patient safety and infection prevention.
The environment of care facilities can affect teamwork, patient-centeredness, and spread of infection. Exploring the impact of room and unit construction on health care–associated infection, this review describes infection control risk assessment recommendations that should be applied during construction or renovation of care environments and advocates for infection preventionists to be involved throughout the process. A PSNet perspective discussed the role of the physical environment in patient safety improvement.