Department Of Veterans Affairs
VA Space Planning Criteria (Chapter 272)
Washington, DC 20420
December 2006
3
OPERATING RATIONALE AND BASIS OF CRITERIA
A. The following workload criteria have been developed on the basis of an
understanding of the activities involved in various functional areas of Mental Health
Clinics and their relationship with other departments and services of a medical facility.
These criteria are predicated on established and/or anticipated standards. Square
feet/meters for each area and unit have been compared to those of the Department of
Defense (DoD) and private healthcare institutions considered adequate for normal
operations. These criteria are subject to modification and adjustment relative to
developments in state-of-the-art equipment, medical practice, and subsequent
planning and design.
B. Room capacity calculation per year should be based on:
Operating days per year x Hours of operation per day
= Number of
Minutes per clinic stop / 60 minutes
annual clinic stops
1. The general planning model for VA facilities assumes 250 Operating Days per
Year and 8 Hours of Operation per Day. Room capacity will fluctuate as hours of
operation are modified, i.e., additional capacity may be generated by extending
the daily hours of operation within the same physical setting.
2. Basic Room Efficiency Factor selected for Psychology Service is 85%.
Example: For a Psychology Service clinic stop that averages 40 minutes:
250 operating days per year x 8 hours of operation per day
= 3,030 annual
40 minutes per clinic stop / 60 minutes
clinic stops
A maximum capacity of 3,030 clinic stops per year, assuming 100% utilization.
However, 100% utilization is not realistic. We will apply an 85% Efficiency Factor
as a design standard for Psychology Service.
3,030 x 85% = 2,575 annual clinic stops.
TABLE 1: WORKLOAD PARAMETER CALCULATION
AVERAGE
ANNUAL
MINIMUM
LENGTH OF
CLINIC STOPS
WORKLOAD TO
CLINIC
CLINIC STOP
UTILIZATION
PER ROOM
GENERATE ONE
STOP
(minutes)
RATE
(rounded)
ROOM
Exam
40
85%
2,575
770
Room
The number of annual clinic stops per room will be used as a criteria parameter to
calculate the number of exam rooms in the Space Criteria section of this document.
The minimum workload to generate one room is 30% of the calculated annual clinic
stops per room.
Psychology Service (Chapter 272): Page 272-4 of 9
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