Foothills Medical Centre to receive ICU Design Citation Award from AACN

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) will present the ICU Design Citation to Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, Canada, during the 2012 National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition, Orlando, Fla., May 19-24.

Foothills receives the award to recognize the patient- and family-focused elements incorporated into the design of the new 36-bed intensive care unit that opened in April 2011 as part of its newly constructed eight-story McCaig Tower.

Individual rooms for each bed not only mean increased privacy for patients and their families, but also decreased risk of infection. With 25 meters of open space around each bed, families have sufficient room to be at the patient's bedside — a guiding principle for the design.

Multiple "quiet rooms" and family consult spaces allow physicians to meet privately with family members and to display images explaining their loved one's condition. Along with an expanded waiting room and kitchen areas, each of the unit's three pods, or sections, also has a resting and sleeping area.