South Health Campus Fact Sheet
What is the Simulation at the South Health Campus (SHC)?
There is an opportunity to build a new hospital that will improve the quality and safety of patient care through evidence based design. The Ward of the 21st Century (W21C) team is working in close partnership with the executive leadership of the South Health Campus (SHC) in the pre-testing of technologies of special interest, and in simulation-based pretesting of various ‘mocked-up’ room designs. The latter simulation-based research, led by Human Factors expert, Dr. Jeff Caird, has been particularly fruitful in producing ‘just-in-time’ design insights that have refined room design plans prior to actual room construction on the SHC site.
Research Background
Building a new hospital presents a unique opportunity to improve the quality and safety of care through evidence-based design. An applied research partnership among Alberta Health Services (AHS), the W21C, and the University of Calgary (U of C), was formed to translate the knowledge and human factors expertise into the design of the SHC. A set of mock-up rooms was built at the SHC for the purposes of evaluation and tendering of bids. The four rooms that were evaluated included an outpatient exam room, an emergency department (ED) exam room, an acute care (ACU) room, and an intensive care unit (ICU) room. Another objective of the human factors evaluations was to introduce and orient health care professionals (HCPs) to the SHC. Overall, results from the project will affect approximately 700 rooms in the SHC and produce estimated savings, post occupancy, of over $1,700,000.00 once the campus is completed.
Questions?
For more information about the South Health Campus, please contact Dr. Jeff Caird.