BY: JESSICA BEUKER

Hospitals are not places that conjure up feelings of warmth and comfort. No, more often they are cold, sterile, with a feeling of helplessness lingering in the air. A hospital is a stress factory, everyone is anxious and nervous, and everyone is waiting.

But not at the Josie Robertson Surgery Center.

The JRSC, slated to open in January in New York, is the new $300 million project of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The building is nearly finished and it isn’t your typical hospital setting.

According to Fast Company, the waiting room is a space for families to camp out, play games, get work done, or grab a bite to eat. The patient rooms are private with private bathrooms, have floor to ceiling windows and the floors are covered in unique art and poetry. Instead of post-surgery recovery rooms, patients will go directly to their own private rooms; their monitoring equipment and support staff will go with them. There are central gathering places where visitors can grab a bite to eat at the breakfast buffet, and the hallways are figure-eight shaped so that they can double as a walking path for post-surgery exercise.

The waiting room is a space for families to camp out, play games, get work done, or grab a bite to eat.

The patient rooms are private with private bathrooms, have floor to ceiling windows and the floors are covered in unique art and poetry.

“Care Pathways” have been designed that will help patients feel comfortable with the quick turnaround, according to Fast Company. A mobile app can send the patient notifications before surgery, reminding them of their preparations. After surgery, tablets will allow patients to Skype with their doctor and when they go home, they will still be able to communicate with their doctor by texting questions and sending photos.

Instead of post-surgery recovery rooms, patients will go directly to their own private rooms.

The most impressive feature however, is that it’s the first outpatient surgery centre that takes on certain complex cancer surgeries, and can send patients home within a day.

The centre is a 16-storey building and will house 12 operating rooms, according to the website. One of the reasons for the new centre is that the main campus had run out of operating room space, and the cases that needed to be moved out were more complicated than what is typical of regular outpatient surgery.

The centre is a 16-storey building and will house 12 operating rooms.

Fast Company has also outlined some of the other features of the new centre. Everyone in the hospital, including staff and family members, will wear a real-time location badge, eliminating loud pagers and intercoms. Also, rather than standing in line when they arrive, someone will come and personally greet the patient at their seat.

Families can track a board that shows where their loved ones are, and it will also tell them when surgery starts, when it’s done and when they can visit. The board will also notify orderlies when they can clean a patient’s room, and will notify nurses and doctors when things are ready for a patient’s surgery.

Staff and family members will wear a real-time location badge to eliminate pagers and rather than standing in line when patients arrive, someone will personally come to the patient.

The biggest reason for the new design however, is to integrate a creative solution to the concerns that regular hospitals inspire. Alleviating nerves and anxieties is a top priority, especially with the quick turnaround. One of the biggest anxieties for a cancer patient is that they feel like they have lost control—control over their health, and over their lives. The Josie Robertson Surgery Centre wants to bring some of that control back to the patients and lead them back to normality.

The biggest reason for the new design however, is to integrate a creative solution to the concerns that regular hospitals inspire.

Image sources: fastcoexist.com