SIMULATION FOR A NEW HOSPITAL OPENING?

Imagine your health service is about to spend millions (if not billions) of dollars on a new hospital. Effective physical design and streamlined workflows will be essential for a new facility where patient care is high quality, efficient and safe. Excellent planning and design from architects will be necessary, but not sufficient. Without the involvement of clinicians and other staff in testing our spaces and our plans, we risk a classic disconnect between ‘work as imagined’ versus ‘work as done’. Some have argued that “It’s time for the mandatory use of simulation and human factors in hospital design”.