The Importance of Health Facilities Report

Introduction

Health is a critical aspect and should be handled with importance. This is because human bodies are susceptible to various health related issues that would require medical attention failure to which death would occur. Health care facilities are, therefore, a key component and should be maintained at the best condition possible to ensure they provide the necessary services in an efficient and effective manner. Drawing from the Health Care Facility Planning Part I, this paper will look at the establishment of an emergency care center/ department, with reference to the American Fork Hospital. Much emphasis will be given to the regulatory requirements and their effect on the design and equipment, color selection implications and noise issues, the equipment needed in the facility, electronic items needed, budgetary issues as well as the responsibility of each stakeholder in planning and development of the facility.

Regulatory requirements and their effect on the design and equipment

Just like any other project or facility, a health care facility is surrounded by some regulations, which could be of different nature, for instance, legal or medical related. The regulations usually have both positive and negative effects according to a given situation. For the sake of an emergency center in a hospital, the regulatory requirements include the attainment of valid license from the state to operate as an emergency center and being held out to the public as a unit that offers care for emergency medical issues without a need for appointment. For a health center to operate an emergency facility, it also ought to have provided in the previous year, at least 1/3 of its total outpatient visits for treating emergency medical issues urgently without prior appointment among others. These regulatory requirements may delay the process of designing and implementing the facility in the hospital and to some extreme instances, they may hinder its set up if they are not met.

The regulatory requirements could also have some positive effects where they will ensure that the facility to be established will be of the required standards hence facilitating efficiency, effectiveness and success in all the processes and activities undertaken therein (Evans, 2006).

Color selection implications and noise issues

Color is an important aspect since different colors symbolize different life aspects. For instance, red for danger or emergency, white for peace and silence and so on. There are different code colors used in different hospitals to symbolize different things. Since there is no standard code, the personnel will come up with the most suited one that will avoid cases of confusion.

Noise is a distraction to almost every situation and emergency center is not an exception. Strategic measures should be put in place to make sure that noise is avoided at all times to ensure that all processes are carried out smoothly (Cooney, 1997).

List of the type of equipment and electronic items needed

There are various equipments that are deemed important in any health facility and more specifically in an emergency department/center. The equipment are usually established to carry out various processes in the department, which are aimed at saving lives especially for patients who are in very critical conditions and susceptible to death if quick and proper care is not given.

Some of the equipment includes military Anti-Shock Trousers (MAST), stretchers, traction splints and CPR machines. Other equipments needed in an emergency center include diagnostic machines and radiology equipment, for instance, ultrasonography equipment, X-rays, CT scanners among others.

The world is going digital and different facilities require different electronic gadgets to facilitate various processes and activities carried out on a day to day basis. There are various electronic items that are needed in a health facility and an emergency department in particular.

Some of them include; computers used for coordination of various activities like processing electronic information and sending them to relevant department through emails servers. Others include communication channels for effective communication of the conditions of patients and their transfer to different sections of the health center. Surveillance systems are also essential to monitor what is going on in the department (Cooney, 1997).

Examination of budget planning and cost estimates

Budget is an essential tool that requires a lot of skills in preparation and estimation of costs. This is because it stipulates the estimate cost or expenses to be incurred in a particular activity or project, eliminating problems that would occur due to insufficiency of funds before a project is completed.

For the sake of setting up the emergency care unit in the hospital, budget planning was done at an appropriate time to allow for adjustments and each activity allocated an estimate amount of money and resources that was deemed enough to undertake them to termination.

Description of the role of stakeholders in facility planning and development

There are various stakeholders that are involved in the health care facility planning and development each being responsible for different tasks, all leading to either success or failure of the project. Some of the stakeholders involve the administration that is responsible for resource allocation and management, the staff who will be involved in the procedures of the facility, the people who will be involved in constructing the facility, the law related personnel who are responsible for seeing into it that all the regulations and standards are adhered to and any other person or institution, for instance, donors and well wishers.

Gantt chart that details an implementation plan

A Gantt chart/ bar chart is a good representation and scheduling tool. It is used to illustrate when a given project and each activity begins and end against a horizontal timescale. It is essential in showing dependencies among processes and activities (Saxena, 2009).

Table 1: Activities in the implementation plan.

Figure 1: Gantt chat of the implementation plan (Total project time 11months, planned time).

Conclusion

No one can deny the fact that health facilities are critical elements. An emergency center is a facility within a health center and it is crucial as it helps in arresting emergency cases for instance accidents. It is also relevant in ensuring that time is well managed and that other medical processes are carried out in an orderly manner as it directs cases to the responsible departments.

Proper care and strategic considerations should, therefore, be put in place to ensure that the emergency department is in proper conditions and the stipulated legal and medical standards are met during their planning, implementation and maintenance.

Reference List

Cooney, B.C. (1997). Emergency Room. London: Scholastic.

Evans, C. (2006). The Foundations of Emergency Care. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill International.

Saxena (2009). Prod & Oper Mgmt, 2E. New York: Tata McGraw-Hill Education.