When new units are planned both future patient activity and new ways of working will be important input to the planning process. Emergency rooms across the world are experiencing strong pressure and increasing the number of urgent care requests. It is therefore important to look at patient flow, if there are measures that can lead to patient flow becomes more controllable, and that the right patients get where they are going. Both input - throughput and output are analysed to see if there are bottlenecks or inappropriate working methods, or if there is no action that can be performed by external parties.
SINTEF has carried out a study activity in emergency departments and operating units in today's hospitals. This is done by field study over several days, studies of staffing, activity data and interviews with representatives from other departments. It is used drawings, and the prior information on trends and developments in terms of such functional areas. It was carried out a study for a new emergency department in Malmö.
SINTEF has participated in workshops with architects and hospital staff to design future devices and focused particularly on passenger and cargo flow and staffing situation. Alternative solutions on the basis of the analyses have emerged.
Principal is Herlev Hospital.
