While we are days away from the Congressional vote on health care reform in the U.S., health care facility managers and hospital administrators are evaluating what types of urgent patient care their facilities are equipped to handle. With the potential for a dramatic increase in the number of patients to be covered, institutions have to determine the type of care they will deliver. Administrators are taking stock of what they have, considering the care and services that neighboring institutions are known for, and determining what will be their area of specialty.
Healthcare facilities that specialize in a few diseases may alleviate the stress on primary-type care facilities that expect an influx of patients. Once a patient’s illness is determined, they can be sent to the specialty facility. For institutions already known for their imaging abilities, treatment of specific cancers, or kidney transplants, for example, their management is expanding on these strengths and publicizing them. Healthcare reform measures have already raised consumer awareness regarding the quality of care at different facilities. Consumers are attuned to well-maintained facilities and design that speaks to patient- and family-centered care.
Hundreds of hospitals have designed plans to deal with a surge of patients arriving at the Emergency Department (ED), and most are sitting on the plans until they know how healthcare reform will translate. Do you expand the ED or wait and see if the expanded coverage gets more people aligned with a primary-care physician? What we do know is that uninsured or minimally insured people have become accustomed to relying on the ED instead of having access to preventative medicine. This is why prevention is a central issue in the healthcare reform discussion.
Let’s hope the next few weeks guide the industry to progress that will allow healthcare administrators to make decisions about their facilities with confidence that they have chosen the right path. Healthcare facilities executives, architects and designers have been waiting and they are ready to forge ahead with designs for expansion and improved services–plans that are good for the economy and good for healthcare in America.
