Over the weekend Western Australia’s new flagship healthcare facility, the Fiona Stanley Hospital, opened its doors and began treating patients for the first time.
The $2 billion development has been designed with the latest innovations in mind to create an environment that lives up to the highest industry standards. To give you an insight into some of the ideas that have gone into making this 783 bed, tertiary hospital we’ve compiled a list of our top four design features:
1) Automated Guided Vehicles (or robots to you and me)
In a move that sounds more like science fiction than reality, a fleet of 18 “automated guided vehicles” will be used at the hospital to carry out much of the hard labour. These large, silver boxes will be scurrying around the service areas delivering meals and linen, collecting waste and transporting sterilised instruments.
2) Art That Points The Way
Everyone knows how stressful it is being lost in a hospital – and at the size of four city blocks this could be a serious issue for the Fiona Stanley Hospital. To solve this problem a garden has been built and large public art pieces installed that not only enhance the calm, healing atmosphere but which also act as landmarks to guide patients around the vast site.
3) Reducing Contamination with Floor Coatings
Sanitation is obviously a vital consideration within any healthcare facility – and especially for the patient catering areas, which have to combine the hygiene concerns of a food environment with those of a hospital. To meet this challenge an easy-to-clean floor with an in-built antimicrobial additive was installed to help keep these areas as clean as possible.
4) X-rays on an X-Box
Patients will be able to keep themselves entertained on a laptop style unit that will allow them to watch TV, make calls, browse the Internet and even play games. This device will also double as an electronic point of access for the patient’s medical records, allowing doctors to bring up X-rays and test results just like a hard copy.
84 patients entered the new facility on Saturday when the hospital began the first stage of a four phase opening schedule, with phase two starting in November. You can take a virtual tour of the hospital by clicking here.
