As a veteran of the U.S. Army myself, the care of these people who have pursued this noblest of causes is dear to me. Most have given far more to it than I.
In my 19 years of health care experience, four of which include time in Army and VA hospitals, and another 10 involve working with the VA as a consultant, I can tell you that there are people who do care about the mental and physical health of our veterans. So much so that it propels them to spring out of bed every day to go to work on that ideal.
But since the VA health care system is among the largest in the world, I'm not surprised that it is sometimes hampered by bureaucracy, and in some cases employees who lose sight of the mission.
Like all large organizations, there are all kinds of people and problems.
Here are some simple and low-cost tips the VA can implement now to design better medical care for veterans. Some of these have already started happening in pockets across the country at some VA hospitals and clinics. It's a process. Keep going. We'll get there.
The patients are worth the fight.
1. Create Caregiver Alcoves for Responsive Patient Observation
We can improve response time to patients admitted to the medical surgical floors as well as mental health inpatient care units by tucking small "touch-down" workstations into the architectural alcoves outside of the patient rooms.
By decentralizing the nurse station, nurses and doctors can order meds and supplies, check lab results and other records, from a small worksurface and computer station set up in the nooks and crannies typically found between two patient rooms.
Not only does this enable better observation of the patient, it cuts down the number of steps a nurse has to walk to get to the patient.
(Did you know that studies have discovered that nurses walk the equivalent of 5 miles during a typical 8-hour shift?) More »
2. Couple the Caregiver Alcove With Decentralized Storage
So you've converted the wasted space in the corridor alcoves into decentralized nursing workstations. Now imagine going a step further and taking advantage of the empty wall cavity that separate the room from the corridor.
By installing a medical supply server storage unit in the wall, it can be refilled from outside the room so as not to disturb a resting patient. Yet when the supplies are needed at the point of care, the nurse has everything in reach--from wound care supplies to linens--within 3 steps from the bedside.
This keeps the nurse in the room with the patient, creating more personalized and effective care, and really, better customer service.More »
3. Reduce Sound for Better Rest and Mental Health
Follow the link to the article in this sub-heading and it will take you to a piece I wrote about design tips for planning a Senior Care Unit. But the argument, and evidence, that applies in that article for Senior Care also applies to young veterans as well.
I strongly believe VA hospital patients could greatly benefit from staying in rooms with carpet tile on the floor, rather than hard surface vinyl flooring, which has been the tradition.
The hard surface floor made sense in years past, prior to the invention of carpet tiles. Broadloom carpet could not be cleaned or replaced easily every time there was a spill of some sort of fluid, bodily or otherwise, on the floor. It was entirely impractical to put carpet on a hospital room floor in that scenario.
But a new, and better, technology has arrived in flooring. Carpet can now be applied to the floor in tiles. That is, small squares that can be picked up and replaced quickly (within a minute) with no expensive tools or specialized training required. And the room can still be used while the tile is replaced, so there's no interruption to patient care.
The primary argument for carpet tile is this: Carpet absorbs sound better, much better, than hard surface flooring tile. This matters because patients in a hospital bed need rest, and there's a lot of traffic in a hospital wing that makes noise and disrupts sleep.
Furthermore, since we're talking specifically about veterans here, noise matters more so. Many of these patients are veterans who have just been wounded amidst a level of noise and chaos that most of us cannot imagine nor fully appreciate. Mental health is at least a secondary concern for every wounded warrior in addition to their primary physical need for care. So every beep, blip, alarm, voice, footstep, door, phone, and intercom is an unwelcome and unsettling riot of noise that slows down their recovery.
Still not convinced? Read more to learn how carpet tile benefits air quality, mold and debris control, patient safety, and patient satisfaction.More »