Phelps Centre for the Study of Government and Business Working Paper 2007 – 04 A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Private Versus Semi-Private Inpatient Rooms in a New Hospital Anthony E. Boardman Sauder School of Business University of British Columbia and Diane Forbes Industry Canada, Ottawa July 23, 2007 Phelps Centre for the Study of Government and Business Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia 2053 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2 Tel : 604 822 8399 or e-mail:
[email protected] Web: http://csgb.ubc.ca/working_papers.html A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Private Versus Semi-Private Inpatient Rooms in a New Hospital* by Anthony E. Boardman Van Dusen Professor of Business Administration University of British Columbia E-mail:
[email protected] and Diane Forbes Industry Canada, Ottawa E-mail:
[email protected] 23 July 2007 *Financial support for this study was provided in part by a contract with Providence Health Care, Legacy Project, Vancouver, BC. The authors wish to Neil MacConnell and Elizabeth Buller, who instigated this research. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Benefit-Cost Analysis Conference in Seattle, May 2007. We would like to thank conference participants for helpful comments, especially Jack Knetsch and Andrew Scmitz. We would also like to thank Aslam Anis and Habib Chaudhury for their helpful suggestions. A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Private and Semi-Private Rooms in a New Hospital Abstract The design of new hospital rooms for inpatient stays is moving towards private (single occupancy) rooms. Private rooms are generally preferred by patients, they may minimize the spread of disease and aid recovery times, but they take up more space and they are more expensive to build and to staff than semi-private rooms.