Nurses Help Design New Emergency and Level I Trauma Center
State-of-the-Art Facility Opened in October 2007
How do you get 15 nurses to meet once a week for an entire year? You ask them to help design a new Emergency and Level I Trauma Center.
Nurses worked with other staff and an architectural firm to design a patient- and family-focused Emergency Department and Level I Trauma Center at John C. Lincoln North Mountain Hospital. "We met once a week for a full year," says Donna Monge, staff nurse in the busy emergency facility. "We know what works and what doesn’t work in our present facility, and we were all committed to designing the best possible facility to serve our patients and their families."
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Donna Monge, RN, and Clinical Director Jeff Tschetter, RN, review blueprints for North Mountain's new Emergency Department.
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What was their focus? "We thought through all of our nursing processes and optimized the design to aid patient flow," says Jeff Tschetter, RN, clinical director. "We worked with all the ancillary departments at the hospital, the pre-hospital crews who bring us patients from all over the Valley, the police departments, the Department of Public Safety, helicopter pilots, and even the FBI and Special Forces personnel. Our goal was to design an ED with seamless patient flow throughout, from patient arrival to discharge."
Anywhere from 130 to 140 patients a day are seen in the ED, and the new facility will have 37 beds, including trauma bays, fast-track rooms and 22 "universal" emergency bays. Rooms are designed with space for family members to be with patients, as well as to comfortably wait in family lounges.
Patient privacy is usually nonexistent in busy EDs, but the nurses involved in designing the new ED ensured that privacy is protected by special insulation installed in walls, ceilings and floors. "Quiet and privacy is important—not only to comply with federal law. Studies also show that privacy enhances healing," says Jeff.
Specialized indirect lighting allows nurses plenty of light to assess and treat patients, while also diverting overhead glare from patients' eyes, allowing for more rest in a stressful situation.
Each patient room will have a television set for distracting stressed patients, enabling patients and families to watch educational health presentations together.
"We’re excited about the new facility," says Donna. "Being part of the design team, we feel like it's our own.