HEALTHCARE
South Australia ’ s unique landscape and cultural history , creating a welcoming , attractive place of healing with the overarching creative design theme of “ a hospital within a park – a park within a hospital ”.
Typical of a hospital stay is the trip downstairs for an x-ray , scan , blood test or other specialist check . Patients at the new RAH won ’ t have much of that to do , as the hospital is equipped with mobile equipment that can be wheeled into their room . Apart from CT and MRI scans , mobile imaging allows the bulk of x-rays , ultrasound procedures , and scope investigations to be conducted in the patient ’ s own room for in-patients . This cuts down on anxiety as they wait for their turn to come round .
All this may sound expensive but : “ We believe it is efficient because it is designed to shorten length of stay ,” says Le Blanc . “ We expect better clinical outcomes , lower reinfection
6,500
Number of Employees at New RAH
rates than you get in ward based hospitals and reduced readmission rates .” Without increasing staff numbers , he adds , more patients can be processed annually with the same number of beds . The simple innovation of having opening windows , looking out on greenery and controlled by the patients themselves , has been shown to speed healing and wellbeing .
Designed-in technology The team dedicated to deploying technology to this hospital and its systems number around 200 , but the people who put it to work day by day are the clinical staff . Getting everyone familiar with the systems ready for the move was the joint responsibility of the equipment manufacturers and the IT teams : and part of the planning had to encompass agency staff too . It is no longer enough for agencies to
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