According to the issues raised by State Department of Public Health(SDPH) on health department guidelines requirement in spacing and equipment, as health facility planner at Kilim Engineering and Architectural Services (KEAS), I confirm appropriate actions has been taken. In compliance with the set guidelines, the KEAS have incorporate new measures to ensure the room spacing and equipment are in order. The KEAS has proposed ninth floor of Northwood Hospital renovation that need be undertaken to the SDPH requirements. Therefore, the KEAS have taken the following measures to comply with these requirements in designing phototherapy room;
Examination area; KEAS initiate appropriate measures to meet 120 square feet cubicle requirement. The room would be subdivided in for booths. These booths would be subdivided using curtains for patients’ examination. The spacing is essential to accommodate equipment that is supposed to be used during the patient examination process (Carpman, Grant, & Kirchen, 2016). Every booth should be fully equipped to support the treatment of patients. The changes by KEAS would incorporate the size of the booths for adequate operation area.
Storage location; the storage locations are supposed to be spacious to allow proper equipment storage. The spacious location ensures achieving clean linen and towels in the examination room. The shelves are essential in ensuring the towels and other linen are well stored and hence maintaining the cleanliness required. Other medical equipment used to attend patients is also supposed to be stored in clean cabinets (Carpman, Grant, & Kirchen, 2016). This would support cleanliness during the treatment process. Therefore, storage locations are supposed to be set appropriately to support safety and cleanliness in the exam room.
Room equipment; the writing area, treatment equipment such as patient gasses, exam table among other equipment are supposed to be in place. This equipment is essential in supporting the phototherapy treatment unit PTU. The equipment is supposed to meet the all the standards required in the exam room to support high-quality services.
Hand washing; in ensuring patients washes and rinse the creams, the phototherapy room should be designed to contain sinks for hand washing. These sinks should be at an average level for all patients to access (Carpman, Grant, & Kirchen, 2016). Hand washing soap or shampoo should be strategically located for easy access by patients. The presence of sink on the Phototherapy Room and other strategic places is essential for patients washing and cleansing their hands.
Wheelchair access: in accessing the Phototherapy Treatment Unit by patients using wheelchairs, the room design should accommodate changes for easy access. This includes using lamp stare cases whereby by assistance the patients can reach to ninth floor at Northwood Hospital. In the Phototherapy Room, the wheelchairs are not necessarily needed as physician attends patients (Carpman, Grant, & Kirchen, 2016). This helps in ensuring no obstruction in the corridors. In need of a wheelchair, the patients are assisted to access the exam room.
All these changes would help in improving the functionality of the phototherapy treatment unit. The improvement and achievement of the SDPH requirement and guidelines would ensure the exam room to standardize the treatment. This would ensure high quality in the phototherapy treatment as both patient and physicians would have well-equipped exam room. This would accommodate the changes that ease treatment process. Therefore, as health facility planner at KEAS, I advocate for these changes to achieve the required standards and guidelines by SDPH.
References
Carpman, J. R., Grant, M., & Kirchen, E. (2016). Design that Cares: planning health facilities for patients and visitors. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass & Pfeiffer Imprints, Wiley.
