Monday, May 08, 2006
May 8th meeting recap
here's a recap of what we had outlined as our plan for the ultimate presentation/submittal:1. creating an overview of the American ER system going from the macro to micro scales
2. at each scale, flagging potential problems or issues that merit further investigation (suggested items for flagging listed below each scale)
A. national
- GIS mappings of the number of ER's from 30 yrs ago (or some other time) vs the number of ER's today
- GIS of state-run vs. private ER's
- insurance complications in healthcare in general (creating the ER as the first place of medical treatment for some, creating financial viability problems for the hospitals in other cases, etc)
B. regional/state
- GIS of transportation access to hospitals
- GIS of hospital clusters in urban vs. rural areas
- GIS or other info source outlining the demographic information (social indicators such as wealth, race, etc.)
- state funding
- private vs. public hospital
C. city
- old vs. new cities in planning hospital locations/access etc.
- case studies of demographics (wealth, race, insurance, etc.)
D. hospital
- how the facility relates to immediate surroundings (how people physically enter, how helicopters access the hospital, etc)
- transfers between the ER and other departments
- triage process
E. ER department
- planning of the ER
- renovation/upgrade
- movement within the ER
- communications
- security
- psychiatric patients
- Paula (the former RN who is now a consultant) and her comments of what are the main issues for an ER vs. the comments that an architect or facilities manager interprets as the main issues
sharon at 6:14 PM