KAILEY GRIFFIN
Developing Efficiencies in Healthcare Design: Using Supply Chain Management Principles to Solve Design Problems
The current VA healthcare system is one that is broken, failing many of its veterans suffering with PTSD by not being able to provide treatment and providing therapy in a space unconducive to treatment. This problem needs to be fixed so that veterans no longer have to keep suffering on their own with PTSD symptoms.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is failing many of the veterans coming back from serving their country. The system is one that is broken, letting many of the people that have bravely served their country suffer alone or worse take their own lives.
Problems found in the physical VA hospital:
Parking
Intimidating facade and stark exterior
Difficult to navigate
Adjacencies of departments are
unconducive to treatment environment
No flexibility within current space
Long wait times
Poor acoustics
No space for family/ friends to join veteran for their treatments
Hospital is falling apart
Current Need for Treatment at the VA:
Veterans in state of Arizona: 530,693
Veterans in Phoenix area: 276,031
(Approximately 20% will
have some form of PTSD) x .20
Veterans with PTSD : 55,000
(Only half will go to
recieve treatment) x .50
Veterans seeking treatment 27,500
Understanding Space Required for Individual Treatments:
10 individual therapy rooms provided (one for each provider)
35 hours of treatment per week per provider
Provider would be working 45 hour week with 10.5 hours for group therapy
Individual therapy must take place once a week for 9-15 weeks in order to follow VA protocol
1,580 veterans can recieve individual therapy per year
Many veterans will end up not going to their appointments just because they’ve become so frustrated with trying to find a parking spot (Veteran C, 2014).
As one veteran commented, “they [VA hospitals] all look like prisons, they need modern updates; the bathrooms are gross, the facilities are gross” (Veteran A, 2014).
Group Therapy rooms:
Roughly 4 out of 5 veterans will participate in group therapy
22,000 veterans in Phoenix area
Group therapy rooms are designed to hold 15 people per room
Facility can provide group therapy for 1,700 veterans a year
Group sessions run in 3 month periods
2 rooms provided in the facility
Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy
One Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy room will be provided in the clinic for veterans that prefer this treatment type.
Approximately 45 veterans can recieve this treatment once a week
Understanding Space Required for CAM Treatments:
2 CAM treatment rooms will be provided
1 for group oriented therapies
Ex: yoga, tai chi, group meditation
1 for individual therapies
Ex: acupuncture, deep breathing
Each CAM treatment room will be able to accomodate 22.5 hours a week
providing additional individual and group therapy for veterans that may be waiting to start other treatments
gives alternative for veterans that do not want perscribed therapies
The clinic will need 7,600 square feet for the
physical building and space for 35 parking spaces.
Purchased site has a lot size of 31,400 square feet and a current structure on the site that is 9,200 square feet.
The cost to construction the PTSD clinic was estimated based on approximate costs
typical for an 8,000 square foot building and the cost of the site was taken from the real estate listing for the medical office property.
The site proposed is 31,000 square-feet and is located at 3rd Avenue and Osborn, approximately 1 mile from the VA hospital downtown.
The site provides 40 parking spaces with 4 handicapped spaces
35 spaces with 2 handicapped are required by the city code
The parking has been made more easily accessible by providing both 90 degree parking and 60 degree parking, which has been shown to be easier to access
Multiple gardens have been provided on the site both for relaxation and rehabilitation purposes.
With the Phoenix VA having at least 27,500 veterans with PTSD symptoms, the independent clinic proposed can provide individual treatment for approximately 1,900 veterans and group therapy for approximately 7,100 veterans a year. This facility would help to significantly increase the number of veterans that receive treatment for their PTSD symptoms.
Current expenditures for the Phoenix VA are 1.3 billion dollars
Return on Investments: Measure of the efficiency of an investment based on cost of the investment and the profit yeilded (in this case the veterans helped).
Clinic ROI = 9000
$1,046,119 = 0.0086/$1
= 90 veterans per $10,000
VA ROI = 276,031
1,300,000,000 = 0.0086/$1
= 2 veterans per $10,000
The most revolutionary idea in the world is only an idea unless there is a plan to put it into action.
The design of the clinic can be easily modified to fit into a different environment so it can easily be integrated into a VA system in a different state.
From the interviews conducted with multiple veterans, many talked about poor experiences at other VA hospitals around the country, which provides an apparent need for this type of clinic in many other VA systems.
This PTSD clinic is just one needed step in the change to the treatment approach within the VA medical system. Change is possible but this change will need to come from within, which entails the acceptance of current weaknesses and a desire to improve the treatment experience for
veterans.
Steps to Implementation:
1. Present the VA with the current gap in treatment services and present them with clinic option
2. Purchase the plot of land
3. Space plans would be finalized into construction documents
4. Demolition of existing building
5. Construction of new facility, along with gardens and parking
6. Systems developed between VA hospital and PTSD clinic
7. Hiring of staff for clinic
8. Measuring of efficiency based on data received from clinic