Advantages of the Circular Pod Design Over Traditional Hospital Layouts
The new Arnold Palmer facility has a circular pod design that promotes efficiency and offers a patient-centered atmosphere. The design is built on a circular pod, which has various advantages over the standard hallway arrangement used in most hospitals. The circular pod plan generates patient-centered surroundings by providing a maximum competent arrangement in all parts of the hospital.
Patient rooms line lengthy halls in a conventional linear hospital plan known as the racetrack pattern, and a nurse may travel 2.7 miles daily. This can lead to delayed care delivery, increased patient falls, and other safety concerns. The new Arnold Palmer Hospital’s circular pod design aims to lessen the distance nurses must traverse to care for their patients. Each pod contains a central nursing space and pie-shaped chambers that give nurses quick patient access. Its design saves nurses time and effort while moving between patient rooms, allowing them to deliver more efficient and effective treatment.
Another advantage of the circular pod design is that it makes the environment more pleasant and welcoming for patients and their families. Warm colors, individual rooms with pull-down Murphy beds for members of the family, 14-foot ceilings, and natural light streaming in through large windows in patient rooms all contribute to a peaceful environment that is more conducive to healing.
The Importance of Servicescapes at Arnold Palmer Hospital
Services capes are vital at Arnold Palmer Hospital because they help to create a welcoming and family-friendly environment (Render & Heizer, 2011). Customers and staff are affected by the physical environment in which the service is provided. The atmosphere, physical arrangement and functioning, signs, symbols, and artifacts create an excellent service cape.
Combining warm colors and natural lighting in patient rooms produces a more peaceful and calming environment. Families may spend more time with their loved ones in a more comfortable atmosphere by booking set-apart rooms with pull-down Murphy beds for family members. Using 14-foot ceilings in patient rooms generates a sense of space and openness, which helps to alleviate feelings of claustrophobia and anxiety. These aspects work together to create a welcoming, family-friendly atmosphere promoting healing.
Innovative Facility Layout Changes Driven by Technology and Cost Reductions
Hospitals must continue to innovate as technology and costs change. Due to the decreasing cost of computers, many hospitals have moved away from a central computer system at the nurse’s station and toward PCs in the room or on a cart. To accomplish this technological shift, considerable adjustments in facility layout would be required.
A central computer system is situated at the nurse’s station in a typical hospital arrangement, and nurses must walk to the station to obtain patient information. Nurses can access patient information without leaving the patient’s bedside if computers are in the room or on a cart. This modification can drastically reduce the time and effort necessary for nurses to obtain patient information, allowing them to offer more efficient and effective treatment.
Hospitals would need to reconfigure the layout of patient rooms to accommodate the computers to implement this change. This might entail modifying patient room furnishings to make room for the computer and ensuring the room has the necessary electrical outlets and other infrastructure to support the computer. In addition, hospitals would need to invest in a fleet of mobile computers or carts to ensure that enough computers are accessible for all nurses on a given shift.
In conclusion, with its circular pod design and servicescape design features, Arnold Palmer Hospital’s new facility provides a patient-centered environment that aligns with its mission. The circular pod design maximizes efficiency, allows nurses to spend more time with patients, and provides a comfortable environment for patients and their families. The servicescape design features also contribute to a comforting, family-friendly environment. As technology evolves, hospitals must continue to innovate and modify their facility layouts to accommodate new technology.
References
Prentice Hall. (2011). Operations Management Video Library: To accompany operations management [and] principles of operations management. Web.