Layout Ideas - St. John's Hospital

The following are the things we took note of in St. John's Hospital that we thought would be useful to incorporate/change when we design our hospital:

• Parking slightly away from the hospital building
• Separate parking for staff and non-staff. Staff parking inside whereas non-staff parking is near the gate.
• We had problems leaving the parking area as there was a bit of a jam because cars enter and leave the parking through the same entrance. I suggest we have a separate exit and entrance for parking.
• Separate lane for pedestrians to walk to the hospital building and cars. However, cars and ambulances go through the same lane and we could consider making a separate lane for ambulances as well. 
• Emergency Entrance isn't very close to the gate and the ambulance would have to travel a slight distance to reach it. There's no other gate for the ambulance besides the main one either. We propose to have the Emergency Area much closer to the gate. 
• Speed-breakers at regular intervals so it's not possible to speed on the hospital lanes.
• Information desk outside and easily accessible. 
• ATM
• Canteen opposite main hospital building. Separate canteen for staff.
• Day care area; Outpatient Department and other regular medical services.
• Reception area had the following: Registration, Billing, a pharmacy, Insurance Desk, Medical Records Counter, Lab Reports Counter, waiting area
• Stairs are hard to find from main reception - needs to be more accessible
• Lab Area for blood tests, etc. close to the lab reports counter ; MRI, CT Scan and X-Ray area 
• Toilets outside, but there are only steps to go out and reach the toilets, no wheelchair ramp, so we must consider wheelchair accessibility everywhere.
• Things we're likely to forget that we made note of - Laundry and maintenance area; general rooms like injection room, dressing room, etc.
• When we enter through the In Patients Entrance, we find that the stairs are located in the centre of this part of the building and all of the floors have the same general plan - Stairs in the centre, with private rooms on either side, general wards on either side, and the different departments and their offices interspersed among them. 
• The first floor has an operation theatre, a separate entrance for doctors to access the OT, and one thing that we must remember - a sterile supply unit very close to the OT. 
• First floor also has the ICU - but we noticed the ICU is quite far from the Emergency Area, so we hope to locate them closer to each other. 
• Seats for waiting patients along the corridors for all floors.
• Utility Room. Nurse's offices.
• Coffee Dispenser thing at stair case landing on 2nd floor - like a Doctor's lounge.
• Lift only for patients, which is good because it encourages everyone else to use stairs.
• Separate lift for staff but it's not easily seen or accessible by regular visitors which is good.
• Emergency Entrance has a separate registration and billing counter.
• Police post near ER

We checked out the new wing being built for differently-abled people but it hasn't reached a stage where we could go inside and check the building out. From the outside, it looks like a building of rooms - quite like an apartment in its structure. 

Ruchika Nambiar