Adult Acute Inpatient Unit

An updated revision of HPU 340 Adult Acute Inpatient Unit (Revision 7, April 2020) has been uploaded. The revised version has been informed by an extensive consultation process with clinical and technical experts.

Key changes to the document include:

• change of HPU name from ‘Inpatient Accommodation Unit’ to ‘Adult Acute Inpatient Unit’ to more clearly represent the scope of the HPU;
• updated information relating to contemporary models of care and staff work practices;
• updates regarding the management of bariatric patients including delineation of standard versus super bariatric requirements;
• inclusion of information on planning and design considerations to best meet the needs of elderly patients including those with dementia / other confusional states;
• updated SOA structure to provide recommended areas by IPU capacity rather than by role delineation;
• changes to the area allocations for clean stores and medication rooms to better accommodate high staff utilisation of medication rooms and access to electronic medication management systems;
• removal of the treatment room from the SOA given minor procedures are usually performed at the bedside or patients are transferred elsewhere for more advanced procedures (noting they may be required for some specialised units); and
• identification of ‘optional’ rooms and inclusion of these at the end of the SOA to avoid them being allocated by default. The requirement for each optional area should be confirmed on a project by project basis.