If you think moving is hard, try moving a hospital. That's the daunting task staff at Royal Jubilee Hospital face as the facility's new tower nears completion.
If all goes according to plan, the hospital will celebrate New Year's Day 2011 by taking possession of its new Patient Care Centre, a $348-million, eight-storey addition that will house more than 500 beds.
But that means moving about 2,000 staff, hundreds of patients and all the bedpans, computers and IV drips a hospital could want into the new tower.
Moving day itself, likely the second week in March, is being planned with Swiss precision. "The longest bed-to-bed move time is 11 minutes," says Robyne Maxwell, a project director with the new tower.
Moving a hospital is something few people who work in such a facility have ever seen, said Maxwell, who works with consulting firm Health Care Relocations, a Victoria-based company that has been planning similar transfers across North America since 1993. "But when the plan is done well, it's actually quite anticlimactic."
The current mishmash of seven interconnected blocks where about 270 medical and surgical patients are being cared for was built over the course of four decades at least 40 years ago. Most contain the clutter that's created by changing medical technologies, needs and even product packaging.
In the new year, they'll be replaced by detailed uniformity. From floor plans to medication storage and even fire extinguisher placement, each floor will mirror the rest. Even the arrangement of soap around the roughly 700 sinks will be identical.
The hope is that a combination of ergonomic design and hands-on input from staff has helped to fashion work spaces that are easier to use and, because they're the same, don't need to be re-learned each time staff move from floor to floor.
It can add up to a 20 to 30 per cent savings in time and guard against mistakes, said project chief Rudi van den Broek. "If I'm looking for a tube with a certain diameter and I'm in a rush, if I know the layout, I'm less likely to grab the wrong one," he said.
But it also means a big change for anyone who's grown used to their workspaces. So, after the building is outfitted in January, staff will run through what Maxwell called day-in-a-life scenarios, ranging from heart attacks to hallway spills. "As we role-play it, that's when we figure out if [the layout] really works in real life," she said.
Changes extend to working units, too. The existing buildings house 17 units organized in four-bed wards, while the Patient Care Centre will have 14 units of mostly individual rooms, said human resources chief Gail Craig.
For nurses, it means a potential change in units and hours. Everyone in the current 17 units will choose a position anywhere in the new building. "Everybody should land in a good spot and come out with something good and if they really don't like it, then we'll fix it," Craig said.
