As technology continues to develop, it’s imperative that both new and existing healthcare facilities are able to implement relevant, modern solutions during every stage of the building or renovation process.
There are many facets of designing and maintaining safe, clean, and efficient hospitals. These days, hospital architecture goals trend towards open, community-based spaces that:
- Encourage equal doctor-patient relationships
- Support patient autonomy
- Feel welcoming and personal
- Favor calming colors and include green spaces
- Feature many of windows for optimal patient monitoring
- Promote staff and patient safety above all
The primary goals are safety, satisfaction, and communication. Patients of all levels of ability and wellness deserve a space that works for their needs, from elevators and wheelchair ramps to rooms that promote hope and calm. Staff need to be sure that they have the appropriate accommodations for all health and patient care situations, from secure isolation rooms to reliable storage units for sensitive items.
While much of the design effort is focused on the actual structure of the building — the dimensions, the accessibility functions, the open-concept feel, builders are still responsible for ensuring that their end result is a facility that promotes health and serves patient needs.
Primex products help alleviate the responsibility of monitoring environments and keeping track of schedules, allowing safety officers and facility managers to focus on optimizing the health and safety of the patients and staff. Our technology aims to safeguard sensitive environments, promote communication, and streamline time management by implementing solutions that reliably and remotely monitor key rooms and storage units, strengthen mass communication, and synchronize time throughout the building.
How Primex Can Help
One of the concepts commonly highlighted in modern design literature is the importance of flow; concerning healthcare facilities, that can apply to anything from the flow of people through the building space to the flow of communication. Primex products like the OneVue Sense™, OneVue Notify®, and OneVue Sync™ portfolios help facilities remove time-consuming daily roadblocks like manual reporting or concern over time accuracy, improving the flow of the workday.
For example, specialty areas like isolation rooms and operating rooms can be monitored using the OneVue Sense Differential Pressure Sensors, which can track the air flow between the rooms and hallways, allowing staff to check that rooms are maintaining proper pressure. The sensors provide local alerts and mobile notifications via text, phone, and email when measurements exit an approved range so that the appropriate staff can take action to rectify the situation. The OneVue Sense portfolio also includes Temperature and Humidity Sensors, among others, which are essential in ICU and operating rooms to minimize the spread of infection and to maintain a sterile environment.
The OneVue Notify® InfoBoard™ can provide visual communication in busy settings, which is essential both for simply running appointment wait times or general announcements as well as during hospital emergencies. The InfoBoard displays can feature both customized and preprogrammed messages that can be sent at the touch of a button. For healthcare facilities looking to provide as many avenues for accessibility as possible, these displays help fortify communication with those who are hard of hearing.
Primex OneVue Sync synchronized time solutions are the perfect fit for facilities in which staying on time is essential. Plus, the variety of analog and digital options ensures that the clock systems become part of the design flow of the building, incorporating both style and function. Synchronized time guarantees that hospital staff can trust their incident records and lab results to be accurate and be certain that appointments, operations, and medication administrations happen on time. These clocks can be placed in every room or hallway for optimal use.
Code Blue and Elapsed Timers provide precise time measurements in critical situations, averting primary focus to the patient. These systems are a synchronized series of digital displays that enable users to either count down or up from the second a code event occurs, which is crucial in places like operating rooms and emergency rooms.
Staying up to date on modern health and design concepts means mastering modern technology; in the case of hospital facilities, this means capitalizing on product solutions that improve flow, strengthen communication, and bolster safety. With environmental monitoring options, mass communication messages, and precise synchronized time solutions, new and improving healthcare facilities can ensure their building is safe, efficient, and modern.