Facility Planning Long-Term Care Facility Planning for Essay

Facility Planning Long-Term Care

Facility Planning for Long-Term Care Facility

With the increasing urban population and the rate of disease, the healthcare facilities developed decades ago need to be upgraded or renovated. In the same way, the Escondido Hospital has recently renovated its long-term facilities. The facilities are upgraded in terms of technology as well as equipment. The research and development in medical care results into new equipment that is more facilitating. The original health care facility expands over an area 14.5 acre. The existing structure was developed 50 years ago. The paper discusses the changes introduced in the facility and the costs and scheduling involved in the renovation process.

Changes Suggested

The facility renovation of Palomar Pomerado in Escondido will involve purchasing new machinery to replace old one and to expand behavioral health care ward and also to have an upgraded skilled nursing facility. These changes will require time and money and also need changes in the skill set of the team working at hospital. The hospital plans to expand the site by adding another 300 apartments. The long-term care patients will be kept in those apartments. The hospital staff will also share the new apartments. Hospital will spend on the development of parking area and commercial space. The hospital will add area 4.5 acres around the health care facility so that the site is stretched to Ivy Street. The company has a rough budget in mind $73 million to renovate the facility (Fried, 2005).

3. Regulatory requirements

The state and quality assurance bodies make it sure that the healthcare facilities abide by the standards. Healthcare regulatory requirements are put to tell the health care facilities that the changes or up gradation in any hospital should comply with the safety and security concerns of patients as well as workforces, the changes should be technically sound and no unnecessary burden should be put on the budget (Reiling, Hughes, and Murphy, 2008). The nurses should be skilled enough to perform their jobs well. The renovation should also not end up in development of a facility center that is too expensive and does not fulfill the competitive requirements of the market. The environment of the facility should not disturb as in the parks or public utility items should not be destroyed.

4. Effect on the design and equipment

The regulatory requirements have a great impact on the design and equipment used in a hospital. The facility is being upgraded after almost 50 years and that means that not only the electronic and digital devices are in condition to be replaced but also some of the furniture and supplementary goods will be outdated (Fried, 2005). The safety requirements ask for equipment which might be more expensive. Also, the regulatory requirements approve some suppliers and the hospital cannot purchase goods from any supplier. The facility should not be very close to the road and if near a public space, it should properly deal with the issues of noise pollution.

5. Color Selection implications and noise issues

Probably no one is disturbed more with flashing lights and loud sounds that a sick person. Young or old, a patient cannot stand a strong beam of light directly targeting his bed or a noise coming from a corridor. The color selection in hospital can be improved by consulting with psychologists. Normally the children ward is painted with lively yet sober colors. The color cannot be too bold that it depresses the patient. However, besides the color, the quality of paint needs to be assured too. It should not cause chemical allergy to the patients. The noise issue can be reduced by putting the signs on walls telling the visitors not to speak but low and only when necessary.The glass walls can be made sound proof based on the needs of ward or the room.

6. Equipment Needed

There is a range of new items and equipment that are required in the hospital. The categories include operation equipment, patient disability support equipment, surgical, diagnostic, emergency equipment, the supplies, child care equipment and electronic equipment. Different suppliers can offer different equipment to the company. Thus the oxygen masks can be purchased form the same supplier offering oxygen cylinders but the patient beds, benches and wheel chair might be better acquired from a supplier specialized in hospital furniture. The hospital also needs computers, cooling equipment, heating equipment, safety equipment, telephones, nursing apparatus, respiratory therapy equipment, procedure kits etc.

7. Electronic Items required

The medical devices are increasingly becoming electronic. There are devices that can involve electronic processing like the EMR or electronic medical record, MRI machine, PET scanner, CAT scanner, ventilators, heart and lung machines, dialysis machine, anaesthetic machines and ECMO. The items can be first surveyed by printing a tender notice (Snow, and Eden, 2009). This offers the insight about the prevailing prices and qualities or standards of the machines available in the market. Only after that the health care facility should make a final decision about which equipment to purchase.

8. Examination of budget planning and cost estimates

The budget set by Palomar Pomerado originally comprised of $73 million. The company expects to collect $496 million through the bonds. The new portion of the hospital will have facility of 453-bed acute care hospital. The total expansion of the hospital requires $531 million. The cost estimates of the facility renovation are discussed below:

Cost Estimates

Total Fund

Equity

$73 million

Bonds revenue

$496 million

Total Costs

Land

(1500, 000 * 4.5 acres) = $6.75 million

453-beds

(10,000 *453) = $4.53 million

30 Computers

(500 * 30) = $0.015 million

2 MRI machines

(1000000 * 2) = $2 million

2 ECG machines

(5000 *2) = $0.01 million

Nursing Equipment

$10 million

Nursing training

$0.5 million

Parking Facility

$10 million

Cooling system

$5 million

Heating system

$5 million

Behavioral health care ward development

$2 million

Noise proof environment

$4 million

Net

$48.15 million

The costs involved in physical changes are $48.15 million. There will be other costs involved with the delivery of equipment, the installation, training, labor costs and the maintenance.

9. Role of stakeholders in facility planning and development

In a hospital there are many stakeholders involved in the hospital operations and daily routines. Even in the event of facility development, the hospital employees, staff, management, physicians, patients and the society is a stake holder. The Staff should be supportive. It should not resist in deployment of new technologies rather they should help the Management in buying as well as deploying new technologies. The staff can generate requirements for new equipment and cooperate in training sessions. The management should run a market analysis to find which equipment to purchase. The Suppliers should offer optimum quality equipment at best affordable prices. The patients can also take part by offering a supportive feedback to the Doctors and the physicians so that they may know what renovation activities are more helpful. The management should seek help from the Society that should not cause noise pollution in the area and help the management expand the facility without disturbing neighboring environment.

10. Gantt chart

The management of the hospital is set to renovate a healthcare facility that set to work about half a century ago. The facility can adopt following Gantt chart to schedule the activities.

The Gantt chart of the hospital shows that the activities of renovation will all be based on the market analysis and the research. The facility's management will than issue a.....