By Healthcare Facilities Today

According to Healthcare Design magazine associate editor Megan Rozsa blog on James Hunt's presentation at the recent Healthcare  Design conference,  the architect began his session by saying that if you're running your behavioral health facility on the principle of "that's the way we've always done it," it's time to change.

"Behavioral health (BH) rooms are different from general hospitals because what works in one won't work in the other," Hunt said. "General hospital patients spend most of their time in their room, where BH patients don't," according to the article on Healthcare Design's website.

He outlined 10 things that that should be changed and improved at a BH facility. The first five are:

1. Design models aren't one solution fits all.

2. Suicide assessments are not reliable.

3. Instead of having a few safe rooms, design them all to be safe rooms.

4. Fifteen-minute checks do not prevent suicide.

5. One-on-one observation is not a sure thing.

Read the blog.