Critical-care-unit bedside design and furnishing: impact on nosocomial infections.

Hospitals in the process of building or renovating intensive-care units (ICUs) often establish multidisciplinary design teams. However, these teams rarely include infection control professionals. Because nosocomial infection is common in the ICU, design features can affect the risk of infection transmission, and outbreaks can occur during construction, this exclusion seems short-sighted. Infection control professionals are familiar with the relevant research, as well as the regulations and guidelines related to ICU design and infection control practices. Not only is their input essential to the design and construction of safe and effective units but their presence on the design team can allow the prospective collection of comparative data to turn the building project into a research project.