Reference no: EM131139053

The administrator of the Vacationer s Hospitals recognized the amount of traffic in the corridors. This prompted her to think about possible problems with the current layout. The core work of the patient care is performed in an area 300 x 150 feet, as shown in the table below: Entrance/Initial Processing Waiting Room Exam Room 1 Exam Room 2 X-Ray Lab/EKG Operating Room Recovery Room Cast Setting Room All rooms measure 100 feet by 50 fee t. Walking distance from one to another is completed by rectangular working patterns. Assuming that a trip originat es from a center of a department and term inates at the center of an adjacent department, a person would walk 15 0 feet (25 feet from the center of originating depa rtment to hallway, 100 feet on hallway to an adjacent department, and 25 feet from the hallway to the center of the adjacent department). The results of a six month long work sampling study analyzing the move ment of VH patients and st aff between the departments, averaged per month are presented in a from -to-chart, as shown in the table below. From-to-Chart (No. of people in motion per month) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Entrance/Initial Processing . . . . . . . . . Waiting Room 1,900 . . . . . . . . Exam Room 1 1,750 250 . . . . . . . Exam Room 2 1,600 300 900 . . . . . . X-Ray 500 675 750 1005 . . . . . Lab/EKG 800 650 880 870 400 . . . . Operating Room 375 0 225 300 325 650 . . . Recovery Room 0 0 0 0 0 0 1,125 . . Cast Setting Room 0 0 0 0 985 525 0 0 . A consultant informed the administrator that every 1,000 extra feet walked (by either patient s or staff) cost $5.5 a month in terms of lost productivity (assuming flows and costs are symmetrical among departments). The objective is to minimize unnecessary walking by changing the location of each department on the basis of traffic data. To move a department costs $20,000 per r oom, except for lab/EKG, operating room, and x-ray, which cost $75,000 each. Determine whether it would be worthwhile to change the layout of the hospital.