Individual rooms in the NICU - an evolving concept.

The provision of individual rooms for NICU patients has several attractive benefits, including the ability to provide the appropriate environmental stimuli for each child, and increased privacy and accessibility for families. This concept can put serious strain on caregivers, however, by isolating them from one another and from the multiple infants for whom they may have responsibility, and places additional financial and space demands on the institution. These problems are not insurmountable, however, and use of individual rooms for at least some patients is feasible and probably desirable if certain considerations are addressed in the planning and design process.