Building Plan Outpatient Clinic Facility Planning There

Building Plan

Outpatient clinic Facility planning

There is a great shift in the real estate and this affects even the healthcare facilities. Notably, the traditional stand alone acute care hospitals are now fast shifting into multiple building campuses and facilities that are multi-state operational. This has been greatly informed by the changing demands of the patients that are becoming increasingly complex hence the resultant emerging new models for the delivery of these complex needs of the clients. Notably, both the physicians and the patients are driving force behind this evolution which focuses on more comfortable facilities, increased efficiency in the facility designs, convenient locations of the facilities and of greatest consideration is that they need to be consumer focused. One characteristic of the new guidelines on buildings is that they provide for the elders as well as other people with long-term care needs, they take care of the diverse cultures, values as well as structures. These are catered for through the various guidelines on the regulatory requirements, color, the electronic items provisions and other factors that may be pertinent to the outpatient department contraction.

The central focus of this paper is on the general specifications and recommendations that should be taken into account while putting up an outpatient department that will effectively cater for the needs of the diverse population that will be visiting the facility.

The central and apparently the most significant consideration for a health facility and the outpatient facility in specific is the regulatory provisions that need to be observed while building. The outpatient department that is to be built should adhere to the Americans with Disability Act as of necessity. Many buildings within the U.S.A. still don't have wheel chair access ramp as required by the law. If a person without legs or dysfunctional legs comes in a wheel chair he has to be helped up the stairs onto the lift lobby. This will straight away discourage anyone with disability from seeking treatment in such a facility or if they do, they will daily live with the discomfort of having to rely on someone to aid their access. This lack of concern for the infrastructure for the disabled can further be seen in lack of bathroom and toilet blocks and facilities that are suited for the disabled, they have to contend most of the time with the facilities meant for the people without any disability. There is a general lack of amenities in the medical facilities that can make the work easier for disabled people. This widely affects those with visual impairment and hearing problems. There are no hearing aids or any visual aids that will supplements their efforts to make them work better, there are as well no special schedules to enable them lessen the stress they incur during the process of seeking medical attention (Ilovendia, 2011). Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards (UFAS) also applies in the building of the clinic. The clinic needs to be constructed so as to be easy to use by visitors with handicaps as required by American National Standards Institute (ANSI). ANSI also set technical basis for accessibility standards adopted by the federal government. Making sure grades are level enough to allow easy movement as well as the sidewalks and corridors are wide enough for two wheelchairs to be rolled side by side without difficulty. Ensuring entries are designed to fit patients with slower adaptation rates to dark and light and marking glass partitions and doors to make them noticeable. The design of the outpatient clinic will also have to follow the particular State and local building codes which are based on the model International Building Code (IBC). Since hospitals handle patients who are covered by Medicare, they must also comply with the federal standards, and to be endorsed, they must comply with standards of the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). By and large, the federal government and JCAHO borrow from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) model fire codes, as well as Standards for Health Care Facilities (NFPA 99) and the Life Safety Code (NFPA 101). The facility will therefore have to consider these provisions mentioned above and ensure that the outpatient department does not only comply to the building codes but also offers the patients a further service like the hearing aids and special schedules when the need arises.

The color of the building will also be of great significance hence there is need to use colors that are reflective of a therapeutic environment that makes the patient feel more like within a doctors' office rather than a hospital. The colors should be cheerful and varied taking into keen attention that some colors can be inappropriate to some patients particularly those with psychiatric problems. The lighting should be as natural as possible. The environment created should be as homelike as possible. There should also be insulation of noise between the doctor's consultation and examination rooms to bar any leakage of private conversations within these two rooms from outsiders. There must also be consideration for patient quiet areas where they can go and meditate (National Institute of Building Sciences, 2011).

In the process of building the clinic, there will be need to have the engineers who will work on the systems like the fire system, connectivity and lighting among others get in frequent consultation with the architect and the contractors. The identified potential suppliers of the equipment that will be used in the outpatient clinic like the seats, therapeutic recliner examinations chairs, the worktops, table, examination beds, wheelchairs, medical diagnostic and treatment machines and other several equipment that will be required need to be in the picture as well. This will allow not only an updated budget process but also ensure the design of the structure, the entrances, ramps, utility spaces are well catered for and incidences of demolishing parts of the building to fit in a given equipment do not occur.

There are also some electronic devices that will need to be considered in the design of the clinic like the air conditioning and the ventilation system as a whole, communication system that covers the entire clinic, the alarm warning systems, the fire response and extinguishing system, computers, CCTV systems, medical billing system, breathing rate monitors, blood pressures monitors, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound among several others will have to be considered in the building process of the clinic.