Image Credit: CFJC Today / Kent Simmonds

By Jill Sperling

RIH MOCK-UP

Mock-up of Patient Care Tower rooms provide opportunity for staff input

Dec 6, 2019 | 4:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — The new Patient Care Tower is taking shape at Royal Inland Hospital.

It’s due to be completed in 2022 and will have a net gain of 15 beds.

Individual rooms are a long way from being finished, but work is already going into the design elements.

Construction Company EllisDon has created a mock-up of each room in the new tower, allowing staff to walk through and see what their future workspaces will look like.

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From furniture placements to light fixtures, Director of Clinical Operations Meagan Hanson says every detail inside the future rooms is being put to the test.

“We did have some of our frontline staff come in in a wheelchair and then you were able to see that, okay, the mirror’s too high, or how does the lift get in there and how does the lift get into the bathroom?”

The rooms have been constructed inside a warehouse on Laval Crescent, providing an opportunity for staff to come in and provide input on the design.

“The mock-ups are actually a really key part of the building process,” said RIH’s Chief of Staff Todd Ring. “It really allows the staff to see first hand what their spaces are going to look like and most importantly give feedback and their impact on what works.”

Patient rooms have been designed with private bathrooms for the sake of infection prevention and control as well as added privacy.

“The single patient rooms also enhance our family centred care so that families can be with their loved ones at a time of need,” Ring said. “We have access to a lot more natural lighting, both within the rooms, as well as on the units in our care team spaces.”

Even the Operating Room has received a major makeover, with design concepts being taken directly from those who will work here.

“Where booms might be in there, where lights might be, looking at the scrub sink outside the operating room, looking at how they prepare, physicians and nursing staff prepare to go into the OR,” Hanson said.

Large equipment will be moved off the floor and onto mounted booms, and more space will provide education opportunities.

“The other thing that we look at as well is from a recruitment/retention perspective, that will be significant when we look at those spaces and the ability to support learners as they come through the system with the eventual goal of having them working here with us,” Hanson said.

With the new Patient Care Tower taking shape and the visual display of future rooms, hospital staff is feeling eager to move into their new space.

“I think the morale at the hospital is really on the increase and we all want to work in a state of the art environment,” Ring said, “we want to be able to deliver the best care we can for our patients, and certainly when we have access to these kinds of spaces that will allow us to do that.”