Inpatient unit visibility, space use, and social networks of communication

Care team communication is fundamental to most healthcare environments, but the dynamic ways that care team workers use space complicate knowing how to best design for communication in hospital spaces. This comparative case study of two inpatient units used floorplan-based measures of visibility, behavior mapping, and social network analysis to gain insight into the relationship of floorplan layout to care team social networks of communication. Greater unit visibility appears to create conditions for copresence that enhance care team communication.