MODERN METHODS OF CONSTRUCTION
name is Custom Dividers) provide both screening from the adjoining patient, and ample storage space. They combine colour-coded storage drawers, to make specific items easy to find, with space for a PC, additional workspace, and lockable cupboard space. Lyn Bennett said: “We have used smaller
The large, self-contained single isolation rooms have brightly coloured doors and IPS panels, while the ceiling skylight boxes create an impression of natural light to compensate for there not being a window. The Dräger pendants house all the medical gas outlets and dual power supply.
Bennett said: “HBN 04-02, Critical care units: planning and design, recommends a minimum percentage of storage space per clinical bed in an ICU, which we have striven to achieve.” She added: “We have also incorporated clean and dirty utility rooms and dedicated rooms for medical waste. The entrances to the latter are on the corridor at the unit’s front, so porters have easy swipe card access, and thus don’t need to enter the clinical areas to collect waste or deliver fresh linen.” Patients brought into the ICU on beds will come in via a specific entrance off the main corridor, while visitors – such as patients’ relatives – will enter via separate external glass doors, progressing down a short corridor to a visitor entrance with seating, where they will ‘buzz’ to gain access. All entry will be via ‘swipe cards’.
Isolation rooms The 12-bedded ground floor incorporates two isolation rooms, typically for patients admitted with a specific infection, or alternatively to segregate incoming patients if any part of the floor is already housing patients with an infectious illness. Each has its own ‘anteroom’ for ‘donning and doffing’, and large internal windows. Lyn Bennett said: “When you’re working a long shift as an ICU nurse, it can feel both pressured, and a bit isolating. Bringing in natural light helps to create some ‘connection’ with the outside, and lessen the feeling of being ‘enclosed’, as do views to other areas. The isolation rooms’ windows not only bring in light, but also allow staff to see colleagues, while with ‘pairs’ of isolation rooms adjoining, the two patients housed adjacently can
46 Health Estate Journal May 2022
also see each other.” The isolation rooms’ roofspaces feature large internal ceiling- mounted recessed ‘skylight’ lighting that projects images of the sky.
Central ‘hub room’ At the centre of the floor is an IT-equipped glass-sided ‘hub room’ for use by clinicians, physiotherapists, dietitians, and other clinical staff, with windows all round so that, for instance, should a nurse need help, they can quickly summon it. The bedspaces feature curtains on rails for privacy, while special Freeway Medical bed dividers (the supplier’s product
versions of the Freeway Medical bed dividers successfully in our existing AICU for some time. They not only provide a really organised means of storing the items that nurses and other clinicians need, but also separate the bed spaces although, at the height we’ve specified, a nurse can see into the next bed bay, and talk to a colleague. Patients, however, have the required privacy. At night, we can pull out the dividers to create more space. The plan is that each day the storeroom operatives will come in, remove the washable drawer liners, and replenish the medical sundries in the various drawers.”
Patient hoists Above the bed are Hill-Rom ceiling- mounted patient hoists, each serving three beds; each isolation room has its own. Lyn Bennett said: “The hoists are great for manoeuvring patients, and, for example, enable us to take them into the showers we have on each clinical floor. Many AICU patients appreciate being able to shower.” Each bed or pair of beds also shares a clinical washbasin, while from the central hub medical staff can get on with their work and easily observe patients. Also mounted above the beds are Dräger pendants. Lyn Bennett explained that CCU patients are distinguished by their acuity as requiring – in descending order – intensive care, high dependency, or enhanced care. The layout of the
A second floor isolation room. The windows have magnetically-operated, easily cleanable, integrated blinds. The bedside dividers are colour coded so that all staff are familiar with where to locate consumables. Each bed is equipped with a Dräger pendant and Philips cardiac monitoring.
James Frazer, Area 1 Photography
James Frazer, Area 1 Photography
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