Should we have only Single rooms in Hospitals?

A recent Google search revealed an interesting article from the 27 August 2008 issue of the Journal of American Medicine (JAMA) entitled "Single Rooms for Safety Patient-centred Hospitals". The extract reads:

"In the 19th century and first half of the 20th century, hospital accommodations consisted of large multi-bed wards with as many as 20 patients, and semi-private or private rooms for those who could pay. Patients received care in these facilities for decades after the design had become obsolete. Almost 90 years ago, it was proposed that single-patient rooms were the ideal setting to provide patient care.1 In the last half of the 20th century, new hospitals were built featuring mostly single-, double-, and 4-bed rooms. It is likely that these hospitals may not be able to adequately provide safe patient-centered care over the next 50 years of their life span. Most modern hospitals have public value statements regarding safety, dignity, privacy, and patient-centered care. A tangible way to show commitment to these values would be to give patients their bed with their . . ."

I am calling for the full article before I post more comments. I thought it may be good to put the article out there to get some views on this since all Singapore public hospitals have various configuration of beds A1 (Single room), A2 (2 beds in a room), B1 (4 beds in a room), B2 (6 beds in a room) and C Class (large open naturally ventilated room).

Do we think that having single rooms will largely solve for patient safety issues related to infection control, or do we think that an over emphasis may actually lead to complacency in basic behaviors such as handwashing and cleanliness that may pose an even higher risk? If so, how do we strike a balance? Interesting isn't it?