Evolution of nursery design and function. The Memphis story.

The total design of a neonatal special care unit is fundamentally determined by patient load, essential staff, fiscal wherewithal, and available space. Given a commitment to this type of care, the least controllable of these factors are patient load and essential personnel. Suggestions for the design of these units can be made only in terms of effective function of personnel and optimal care of infants. The encapsulated account of our evolution is intended to present the rationale of our decisions. A straight-forward unembelished description of these physical facilities would not be meaningful without continuous reference to the staff and the infants that bring a facility to life.