Students Design Hospital Emergency Departments

The assignment for Biomedical Innovations students at University City High School was to design an effective and efficient emergency room and then present their plans to members of the medical community for grading.

Teams of three to four students conducted needs assessments for an emergency department and then addressed:

1. The physical layout;
2. Innovation in equipment, devise or organization; and,
3. Staffing and connections with other departments.

Students researched issues of congested hallways, patient and family wait times, long wait times for diagnostics such as labs and x-rays, tedious movement of equipment room to room and other emergency department complaints. They also studied the care, diagnosis and treatments of two patients to develop their final presentations.

Some of the innovations the students created were:

• Patient and Family Tracking systems
• Specific Rooms for Psych Patients to decrease congestion in the Emergency department
• Integration of Smart Phones with Apps to pre-register for the Emergency department
• Gardens for Waiting Rooms
• Use of iPads for transfer of Patient Results

The students presented their plans to local emergency department directors, a vice-president of nursing, an emergency room nurse, a physician and a Ph.D. data analyst. The students will be touring a local emergency room this month to see how a real hospital puts things into action.

For more information, please contact Ellis Vandiver, CCTE Biomedical Sciences Instructor, at evandiver@sandi.net.