No more steps: Redesign considers disabilities
Heart and lung center designed for patients
When administrators at Deborah Heart and Lung Center in Browns Mills, NJ, decided to redesign their admissions lobby and outpatient clinic, they put themselves in their patients’ shoes. Those patients, although they could walk, had respiratory and heart problems that prevented them from climbing stairs or ramps and from trudging through corridor after corridor to reach their services. To accommodate their patients, the architectural redesign team located the admissions lobby and clinic on the same level as the parking facilities, and all the outpatient services are within a short walk from the lobby.
"We wanted to recognize the kind of patient that hospital has," says Ted Newell, project manager for Ewing Cole Cherry Brott, the architectural firm in charge of the project. "They have difficulty getting around."
The hospital spent five years and $30 million renovating and expanding 75% of its facility. The project was completed in Fall 1996. The 60,000-square foot ambulatory care was one of the numerous efforts to redesign the facility according to patient-focused care principles.
Parking lot moved for patients’ convenience
A redesign team consisting of architects and hospital staff first looked at patient accessibility to the outpatient center. The team wanted to minimize the patients’ travel time and distance from their cars to the clinic because unless they were already in wheelchairs, they would have to walk. Once patients reached the hospital, staff could give them wheelchairs. They solved this problem by locating the parking lot "literally right outside" the clinic, says Craig Thier, MBA, director of patient access services.
"This was really important," Newell says. "We wanted them to have as few obstacles as possible getting here. They can’t walk up stairs and they have difficulty getting into elevators. If it’s hard to get to the clinic, that’s going to affect their satisfaction with it."
Next, the team addressed the location of the services themselves. At the time, the services were scattered on different floors and at different ends of the facility, sending the patients on time-consuming and lengthy trips that exhausted them. The team, in response, consolidated all these services. The outpatient clinic is now laid out like a wheel, with a central waiting area at the hub and the services branching off like spokes.
"They can go to the diagnostic centers and come back to a home base, the waiting room," Newell says. "They are never far from their family."
The services located in this hub include pulmonary testing, radiology, nuclear medicine, ultrasound, cardiac imaging, physical therapy, same-day recovery, and noninvasive services, such as electrocardiology and echocardiography. An elevator tower and corridor system allow inpatient access to the shared services. All staff have been cross-trained to handle both inpatient and outpatient processing.
The billing department also has been moved into this hub as part of the streamlining effort.
"People providing these services need to be closely connected so they’re not having to wait for information from a department at the other end of the hospital," Newell says. "Now, they’re right next to each other."
The waiting room itself has been redesigned for patient and family comfort. It is one large open room, but alcoves contain clusters of chairs to create a sense of personal space.
"It caters to groups of families because they may spend hours there," Newell says. "We wanted them to be comfortable."
The decor, itself, resembles a living room. Wood casings replace institutional metal and glass. Table lamps offer soft, residential-type lighting. The upholstery and carpet feature soft hues of blue and purple. Each alcove sports a distinct pattern to promote the sense of personal space. This same homey decor pervades the hospital which boosts staff as well as patient morale.
"For those places not slated for renovation, there was still a facelift throughout the hospital to bring uniformity. That way no one felt left out," Newell says.
[For more information, contact Craig Thier, Deborah Heart and Lung Clinic, 200 Trenton Road, Browns Mills, NJ 08015. Telephone: (609) 893-6611. Or Ted Newell; Ewing Cole Cherry Brott, 100 N. 6th St., Philadelphia, PA, 19106. Telephone: (215) 923-2020.]
You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content