Multipurpose facilities add flexibility at Hyvinkää
Thanks to uniform operating rooms and multipurpose facilities, surgical operations are more efficient than ever at Hyvinkää Hospital.
Light floods in through the glass ceiling of the recovery room, and the operating room boasts a view of the forest landscape. Subdued light colors lend a sense of space, and it is peaceful everywhere. Yet almost all the new operating rooms at Hyvinkää Hospital are occupied, with an operation in progress. Only one operating room is always kept free in case of an emergency C-section.
The sense of tranquility is established in the waiting room, titled ‘From home to operation’ (LEIKO), where patients can watch fish in an aquarium while waiting for their procedure. Patients can walk from the waiting room to the operating room themselves.
“When a patient is active before surgery, they will be active after surgery too. The waiting room calms them down. We rarely need to administer a sedative as premedication,” says Director Ulla Keränen.
The new surgical ward at Hyvinkää Hospital was inaugurated on schedule at the beginning of August. The introduction has gone surprisingly smoothly according to Keränen, and the new facilities have earned much praise from both patients and personnel.
All rooms equally equipped
All the rooms on the surgical ward are multipurposed. The new building houses operating rooms, a new recovery room and a variety of multipurpose rooms.
All operating rooms have the same equipment, which makes employee orientation easier, saves costs and improves patient safety. Physicians and nurses can work in any room and expect to find the same basic setup – ceiling pendants, lights and monitors are the same and in the same locations. All equipment can be moved as needed, of course. All rooms are also radiation protected, meaning they can be used for X-rays.
“Medicine will be changing hugely in the future, and we must have the capability to make changes flexibly,” says Keränen.
There are no cabinets in the operating rooms; all utensils are brought in on trolleys. The healthcare logisticians stock the trolleys with whatever is needed, according to the operation roster. Supplies easily get outdated if stored in cabinets, and it is impossible to store all possible surgical supplies in the multipurpose rooms.
The operating rooms were designed ergonomically, considering details such as the elevation of screens. Any image can be sent to any screen, so for instance the anesthesiologist can see what the surgeon is doing instead of having to ask. For added safety, there is a closed-circuit extraction system to remove fluids and convey them to a sealed tank that is then emptied into the sewage network. Personnel is thus not exposed to splashes.
Four recovery rooms became one
Instead of four recovery rooms as before, there is now only one recovery room subdivided into zones. In addition to ordinary recovery room beds, there are glass-walled cubicles with curtains for patients requiring privacy. So, a mother recovering from a C-section, for instance, can recover undisturbed with her baby and spouse or other support person and begin nursing.
There are also glass-walled cubicles where children can play before and after their operations. Combining the recovery rooms reduced costs, as it is now possible to assign personnel flexibly as necessary.
An elevator directly from the maternity ward to the surgical ward is an important innovation, as it ensures quick access for emergency C-sections.
“The elevator is always on standby on the maternity ward. In an emergency, you must get the baby out in a matter of minutes. The elevator is large, because in an emergency C-section there are a lot of people around, and they have to have room to work,” says Keränen.
No boundaries between occupational groups
The surgical ward looks large and spacious, but the floor area is not that big, according to Keränen. The multipurpose rooms ensure that the space is not cramped. In the Hyvinkää surgical ward, all operating surgeons do their dictation in the same room, where they and the anesthesiologists can see via cameras what is going on in each operating room.
“When people work in proximity, they learn from one another. The ward is designed to not impose boundaries between occupational groups. Random encounters generate new ideas,” explains Keränen.
Keränen stresses the importance of well-functioning premises for the wellbeing of both patients and personnel. Modern technology combined with employee wellbeing produces quality and seeing other people at work breeds respect and a team spirit.
“The better planned everything is, the calmer and more controlled the work can be. We do a lot of different things, and uniform policies make things clearer.”
Hyvinkää Hospital surgical ward in figures
- 14 operating rooms, of which 10 are new.
- 1 recovery room with various zones.
- 26% of operations are emergency surgical procedures. Surgical emergency services are on call on a 24/7 basis.
- About 7,300 surgical operations per year.
- More than 1,800 deliveries per year.
The article was originally published in Husari 5/2019.