Increasing Efficiency: How simulating workflow enhances project staging

Using simulation-informed clinical design, we can engage all stakeholders from the outset and keep the patient at the core of the design process. The needs of patients must be kept as the primary goal to deliver an optimal design that helps to save lives.

While simulation is just one instrument in our design toolkit, we are realizing project efficiencies during the front-end of the design process which translates to fewer changes later on. It’s a catalyst for reimagining the process of healthcare design.

Usability of Space

Not everyone has the ability to read and understand drawings. In healthcare, by using workflow simulation and models, architects can test every piece of the early design, subsequent design modifications and resulting fit ups, to ensure the space creates an environment for healing.

In the reimagining of a new trauma bay at St Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, ON we worked with the clinicians and used simulation during our project staging to identify and solve challenges early on by engaging with an interactive space. Using even the most rudimentary items to simulate an emergency department working environment, sparked important conversations about the prescriptive workflows healthcare providers follow. By interacting the clinical workspace before it is completed, the end users can easily identify future challenges and collaborate on a solution that puts the patient’s needs first.

Simulation can be used across the spectrum of the healthcare design process from nursing station configuration, to treatment rooms and trauma bays, to patient units and other critical departments. It’s an efficient way to achieve best results.

Recalibrating the Design Process

Pilots run through a lengthy checklist to make sure everything is working before they takeoff. Healthcare facilities also have checklists as part of their standard procedures. At NORR, adding simulation is part of the design process checklist to deliver a high-quality functional space.

Efficiency is paramount for any healthcare provider, and the design of the spaces they work in is no different.