Physical Environment
Creating and monitoring a healing physical environment involves
issues related to space, privacy, and safety. Toward Improving the
Outcome of Pregnancy, published in 1976 by the March of Dimes,48
was a landmark publication written by a multidisciplinary committee
to provide a rationale for planning and policy for regionalized
perinatal care, as well as details of roles and facility design. Sixteen
years later, in 1992, a multidisciplinary NICU Committee, under the
auspices of the Physical and Developmental Environment of the HighRisk
Infant Project, reached consensus on the first edition of
recommended standards for NICU design.
The purpose of this committee was to provide health care
professionals, architects, interior designers, state health care facility
regulators, and others involved in the planning of NICUs with a
comprehensive set of minimum standards based on clinical experience
and an evolving scientific database. The intent was to optimize
NICU design within the constraints of available resources, to facilitate
excellent neuroprotective developmental health care for the infant in
a setting that provides adequate space and facilities to support the