The User’s Voice - Prospective Ergonomics in Hospital Design

Objectives: Objectives are the best layout (organizational and architectonic) of a new surgery facility of approx. 25 operating rooms to match user’s (anaesthetists, surgeons, nurses) and client’s requirements. Method: Integration of ergonomic work systems variables into the project structure. Site visiting of several university hospitals: Switzerland-ZURICH-BERNE-LAUSANNE, Belgium-LEUVEN, USA-MAYO-Clinic. Structured interviews with at all 32 users at the surgical facilities mentioned above, carried out with an explanation tool, the VALAMO (variable layout model). FIT-System (computerized event recording) analysis of teams, tasks and links. Structuring of the Information in a Database. Results: Twelve ergonomic variables were defined for to guide the first phase of the construction of the new building. The systematic link with 168 other variables of the project indicates impressive the need to find solutions for to reach transparency work processes In contrast to the Swiss hospital (6-8 OR, induction rooms, no holding areas), the MAYO-Clinic (45 OR) as well as the hospital of Leuven (16 OR) have a central holding area and a integrated post anaesthesia care unit. The Leuven hospital shows the most efficient work organization in small teams (no anaesthesia nurses) using parallel activities and taking profit from a clearly arranged room layout. With the support of the VALAMO layout tool, over 580 user statements are collected in the interviews, representing their knowledge and experiences. Event recording shows a high diversify in the team work in the Swiss hospitals. The information are structured under the aspects of: work organization, patient’s point of view, ergonomics, education, training and efficiency in relation to the different layouts. Conclusion: Decision making in design and architecture needs the finding and sorting of information which is often as complex as the concerned system is. Therefore the application of ergonomics can support this process in a catalytic way, to gain information from existing, similar systems. There the experts are the users, their voice represents their knowledge and their experiences