Attention towards a more efficient and patient-centred outpatient care is increasing. This is due to a common interest in reducing the costs associated to long in-patient care stays. The Jeroen Bosch Ziekenhuis in the Netherlands adopted a non-conventional system of outpatient department: a hybrid system derived from the airport environment, where patients’ empowerment and comfort are the main issues. This article describes this new concept and its impact on the patients.
The healthcare panorama is rapidly changing and the way of designing the entire hospital and its components as well [3]. Sustainability, efficiency, eco-friendly interface, patient-centred care, telemedicine and healthcare information technology are all issues characterizing this generational change. Certainly the hospital of the future will be greener and patientcentred, buildings easier to manage and shaped not by heavy technology but by healthcare information technology and all its variables. The choice made by the Jeroen Bosch Hospital of transforming the traditional concept of policlinic into a more hybrid and efficient typology has its pros and cons. The research conducted shows that the benefits and positive comments from the patients outweigh negative ones.
However, as is always the case, it is never easy to introduce changes into well estalished procedures. Elderly patients have difficulties in interfacing with new technological devices and the complete lack of staff in supporting them may cause some problems. Although the use of check-in stations raises the general efficiency of the hospital in terms of expenditure and optimized waiting times, it would seem that a small number of mobile staff is required to support the patient’s interaction with the new technological devices. This will definitely not bring back the classical acceptance desk with its nursing staff into the front-office area, but should facilitate the transition towards full implementation of the new system. A solution could be, for example, for this kind of staff to walk through the policlinics and provide information and support to patients who request it; the number of personnel involved in such supporting activities will remain much lower than that required for acceptance desks in every outpatient department. The experience of the automated policlinics of the Jeroen Bosch Hospital is definitely a good example of development of innovative concepts in the healthcare environment that are able to modernize hospitals and make them more efficient. Changes may be difficult to implement but are a must that hospitals can no longer afford to neglect nowadays.
Giuseppe Lacanna, Ing. arch., PhD Researcher, UIA-PHG young leader Department of Architecture, Chair of Complex Projects/Building Typology, TU Delft, Delft, the Netherlands. Giuseppe is a licensed architect in Switzerland and Italy. He practices as an architect and researcher for the biggest healthcare architectural firm in the Netherlands: EGM architecten b.v. His interests span from the architectonical design of healthcare buildings to the interactions between the built space, the users and the urban context with particular emphasis on the public spaces. How the public spaces in large hospitals can be transformed strategically in propellers for renewal and new economies is his specialization and his main field of investigation. He constantly follows the activities of the Academy of Architecture for Health of the AIA.
References
1. Wagenaar C. The architecture of hospitals, NAI Publishers 2006, Rotterdam.
2. Ulrich RF, Miles MA. Effects of environmental simulations and television on blood donor stress. Jo