be a fairly high priority; a more ef cient staf costs less,
provides better patient care and has higher morale.
One example is when a Texas community hospital realized it
needed to get creative for its funding for capital upgrades. The
current hospital was outdated and the infrastructure had not been
maintained. Funds were limited and, even though the community
would not pass a bond referendum, it did not want the hospital to
abandon its location in the center of town and move to the outskirts.
In response, the designers proposed a substantial construction
project to upgrade the areas that directly impact patient
satisfaction: the emergency room, radiology and surgery. The
project also corrected relationships — spatial movement between
the existing ER and radiology — that were the culmination
of years of important additions, but had the unintentional
ef ect of compromising a coherent patient experience.
That process not only optimized patient satisfaction, but
also created suf cient space on the main campus to bring
back all of the services that had been operating in leased of -
campus spaces. The savings from those terminated leases
provided additional income to contribute to the costs of the
upgrades to the central hospital at its existing location.
MCDM AG.COM | SEPTEMBER /OCTOBER 2015 | Medical Construction & Design
55