Does a vitals monitor work on normal medical beds?

No. In the local RimWorld 1.6.4633 defs, the monitor is described as hospital-bed only and HospitalBed is the bed that links to VitalsMonitor.

How many beds can one vitals monitor support?

In tight layouts, one adjacent monitor can cover the surrounding bed positions around it. The tool recommends 1 monitor for the common 4-bed and 8-bed compact patterns.

Where should sterile tile go first?

Put sterile tile under beds, in doctor lanes, and in any dedicated surgery bay before spending on full-room coverage.

Should the hospital be near the killbox?

Keep the long-recovery core central and safe, then add a small frontline triage room if your rescue path from the defense line is long.

How to Make a Hospital in RimWorld (1.6.4633) | Builder + Layout Tool

Build a RimWorld Hospital

Builder & Strategy Guide: From Triage To Surgery

Updated For 1.6.4633 rev1266 4-bed and 8-bed layouts with a live planner Planner + Surgery Stack Tool

Quick Solution: Immediate Build

Place a 4-bed core in a clean indoor room near your colony spine.
Use hospital beds if researched, or normal beds marked Medical as a stopgap.
Add exactly one powered vitals monitor after hospital beds are online.
Use sterile tile under the beds, the doctor lanes, and any surgery spot first.
Keep industrial medicine on a shelf inside the room and keep kitchen or butcher traffic out.

Important: a vitals monitor does nothing on a normal bed flagged Medical. Upgrade to hospital beds first, then power the monitor.

Quick build checklist for a compact RimWorld hospital — Quick build card for the compact starter hospital.

Starter RimWorld hospital blueprint for a compact 4-bed core — Starter blueprint for the compact 4-bed core.

Hospital bed versus normal bed comparison — A normal bed already gives immunity factor **x1.07**, but only a hospital bed adds **+0.10 tend quality offset**, **x1.10 surgery factor**, and monitor linking.

Vitals monitor benefits and limitation — The monitor adds **+0.07 tend offset**, **+0.02 immunity factor**, and **+0.05 surgery factor**, but only when the bed is an actual `HospitalBed`.

Sterile tile priority map — `SterileTile` gives **Cleanliness +0.6** and **CleaningTimeFactor 0.6**. Spend it where doctors stand, not across every decorative square.

4-Bed Core

Best first real hospital: short rescue routes, easy sterile lanes, and one monitor once hospital beds are ready.

8-Bed Dense Wing

Best once raids leave multiple casualties. This compact ring uses one core monitor.

Dedicated surgery room layout — Best when you want clean surgery flow and no through-traffic.

Two-hospital strategy comparison — Travel time is a stat. If the rescue walk from your defense line is long, split triage from long recovery.

Hospital supply shelf checklist — Default shelf policy: keep industrial medicine in-room, save glitterworld for high-risk surgery or razor-thin disease margins.

Version: updated for RimWorld 1.6.4633 rev1266 on March 25, 2026.

Hospital Builder Tool: Plan the Room Before You Spend the Steel

Planner Inputs

Core ward size

Bed tech stage

Sterile coverage

Default medicine on shelf

Rescue route from combat

Injuries usually come from

Dedicated surgery bay?

Key room pieces for this planner: normal bed 45 stuff; hospital bed 40 metallic stuff + 80 steel + 5 components; vitals monitor 50 steel + 3 components and 80W; sterile tile 3 steel + 12 silver.

Planner Result

Choose a core layout to get a hospital plan.

Beds4 core

Monitors0

Tend Offset+0.00

Immunity Factorx1.07

Room Clean Factorx1.00 surgery

Infection Factorx0.50

Sterile Tiles17

Research NextHospital Bed

Selected hospital layout preview — The planner preview switches between the 4-bed core and the 8-bed wing.

Exact Build Bill

The planner will calculate bed, monitor, and sterile tile costs here.

Placement note will appear here.

Copyable Template

Surgery Stack Inputs

Doctor medicine skill

Bed type

Vitals monitor

Medicine used

Room cleanliness target

This stack focuses on doctor skill, medicine, bed, monitor, and room cleanliness. Body condition and surgery difficulty still change the final in-game result.

Surgery Stack Result

Set your doctor, room, and medicine to estimate the surgery stack.

Doctor Skill Factorx0.94

Bed + Monitorx1.15

Medicine Potencyx1.00

Cleanliness Factorx1.06

Combined Stackx1.15

Immunity Factorx1.13

Tend Offset+0.17

Infection Factorx0.38

Formula will appear here.

Monitor warnings and planning notes will appear here.

Game Values Used In This Page

Piece	What It Gives	Why It Matters
Game version	1.6.4633 rev1266	This page is tuned for the current 1.6 branch.
Normal bed	45 stuff, immunity factor x1.07, surgery factor x1.00	Good enough early, but still cannot use a monitor.
Hospital bed	40 metallic stuff + 80 steel + 5 components, tend +0.10, immunity x1.11, surgery x1.10	This is the real midgame hospital upgrade.
Vitals monitor	80W, adjacent only, tend +0.07, immunity +0.02, surgery +0.05	Use it after hospital beds, not before.
Sterile tile	3 steel + 12 silver, cleanliness +0.6, cleaning time factor 0.6	Best under beds, doctor lanes, and surgery spots first.
Cleanliness curves	Surgery: -5→0.6, 0→1.0, 1→1.10, 5→1.15; infection: -5→1.0, 0→0.5, 1→0.2	Clean rooms pay twice: better surgery and fewer infections.
Medicine potency	Herbal 0.60, industrial 1.00, glitterworld 1.60	Industrial is the safest default shelf policy for a serious hospital.
Doctor surgery skill	Factor table from 0.10 at skill 0 to 1.10 at skill 20	The room helps, but a weak doctor still stays weak.
Research	HospitalBed research 1200; VitalsMonitor research 2500 and depends on MultiAnalyzer + HospitalBed	That is why the planner tells you to research beds before buying into monitors.

Planning Notes

Sterile coverage presets are planning targets. Use them to budget the room, then keep the room actually clean in play.
If the rescue path from your defense line is long, the planner adds a 2-bed triage pocket because travel time kills more pawns than pretty room screenshots save.
The compact 4-bed and 8-bed templates are built around one adjacent monitor in the core ward.
The surgery stack shows room and gear pressure, not the full final chance. Doctor body condition and operation difficulty still matter.
Hospital beds cost more than most quick guides imply because they consume metallic stuff as well as fixed steel and components.