Regulations of Facility Planning for Disabled People - Essay Example

Facility Planning and Considerations Introduction Long Term Care Facilities form a major part of the healthcare system. The nature of the patients that are serviced by such facilities may require them to have special uses to meet the special needs. As a result, there are several regulatory as well as professional factors that would have to be considered when designing and developing a Long Term Care Facility. These factors are geared towards creating a care environment that will facilitate the good care of the long terms patients, by providing the right ambience as well as the right tools, equipment and systems that will make it easy for the doctors and the nurses to serve the patient in an effective and efficient manner. Regulation One of the main regulations that govern Long Term Care Facilities is the requirements for a governing body. The law requires any Long Term Care Facility to have a governing body that will act as the center of operation to manage the institution (United States, Public Health Service, Office of Nursing Home Affairs, 1975). According to regulation requirement, the governing body of such a Long Term Care Facility should also appoint an administrator. Such facilities are also required by regulation to have certain health officers such as a doctor, a practicing nurse, a doctor aide etc. Although complying with these requirements, the facility license may be terminated, it may be denied persimmon to operate. Color selection and noise issues Long Term Care Facilities also act as a home to the patient. Unlike other patients who go to a health centre and then get discharged after a short time, patients in a Long Term Care Facility are usually there to stay in a long time. This will have an implication in the way colors are chosen for personal spaces. For instance in individual rooms, it may be necessary to allow the individual patients to choose the color they want for the wall paint, the paintings, furniture etc. Color is also used as a way to create perception of space. This means that some colors can make space to appear wide and expansive and such colors are useful in a patient situation. Colors also have a psychiatric importance because some colors can set the right mood while others can set the wrong mood. Noise issues must also be considered. Some patients may be over sensitive to noise as it may affect their internal peace of mind and ability to relax. Mobility equipment such as wheelchairs Any Long Term Care Facility has invalids and or convalescents who may not be able to move around easily. These people will require mobility equipment such as wheelchairs. Wheelchairs come in many options such as custom-made, powered wheelchairs, standard wheelchairs etc. The Long Term Care Facilities are supposed to have them in order to help the patients to have easy mobility. Depending on situation, these can be covered by a health insurance. Fire hydrants It is in the regulations that every Long Term Care Facility should have strategically placed fire hydrants that are easy to use. These are necessary in case of a fire because in case of a fire outbreak, it would an easy way to put off the fire, given the nature of the residents. Electronics Computers Although it is not a regulatory requirement, Long Term Care Facilities need computers in order to computerize their health records. It is argued that Long Term Care Facilities are lagging behind where adoption of information technology for the streamlining of health delivery is concerned. This means that it is important to have computers and computer systems that will make it possible for the Long Term Care Facility to have better ways of managing the health records. However, the purchases of computers and other computing tools such as tablet computers and PDAs will not be enough. This is because the effectiveness with which this technology can be used will depend on a number of issues such as training of the system end users. Additionally, the computing equipment will not be useful without special software such as health record software. Television sets Television sets will also be useful and necessary for a Long Term Care Facility. These Long Term Care Facilities have residents who have nothing to do the whole day and having a way to keep them busy can be useful thing. A TV set is one of the ways in which they can be entertained and therefore will be needed. Surveillance systems A surveillance system may be necessary and would need to be installed in major areas in the facility. This can be used for monitoring the patients so that any case of emergency can be easily spotted and taken care of as and when it occurs. Examination of budget planning and cost estimates As Dunlop (1976) says, equipment is some of the most important for a Long Term Care Facility. These equipment ranges from general medical equipment such as beds to equipment that is more specific to the Long Term Care Facility such as wheel chairs. The cost estimate for these equipment will depend on some issues such as the number of patients the Long Term Care Facility is intended to hold, whether or not there is insurance involved in buying and servicing these equipment and the facility itself etc. For a Long Term Care Facility that is intended to hold about 50 residents, the costs could be anywhere between 200 thousand dollars to about 400 thousand dollars depending on the factors described above. The other cost will be the cost of erecting he premises where the facility will be located. This may also need a piece of land if it does not already exist. The cost of construction may range from 20 thousand dollars to about 40 thousand dollars. This will also be determined by a number of factors such as the location, the materials used and the size of the care facility. For a facility to host about 50 patients, the cost may be about 50 dollars. Stakeholders Stakeholders in this particular case include the following people; The community The community will need to be consulted because the project will affect them in a number of ways. First of all, the fact that the project will be conducted in the community will affect the community, such as having the foreigners coming into the community. The Long Term Care Facility will be serving not only the people from the local community and this will mean that there are people who will come to community. At the same time, because the Long Term Care Facility will also be serving patients from the local area, this will make it necessary to ensure that they are consulted on the issue. The doctors The doctors are also important stakeholders who will need to be consulted because they will also be affected by the way the Long Term Care Facility will be developed (White, 2007). The location and also the structure of the Long Term Care Facility affect the way the doctors will be able to work. The doctors will want to be guaranteed that the facility has what it takes to help them serve the patients well enough. The nurses The nurses will also be important stakeholders in the project because they will want to know that the facility is designed and structured in a way that will facilitate their work. The government In its role as a regularity authority, the government is also an important stakeholder because they want to ensure that the facility meets the standards that are necessary to guarantee the patients will be able to quality health care from the facility. The regulatory authorities will have to be consulted so that they can give the licensing and the permission to begin implementing the project. Conclusion The main challenge that will have to be faced in the designing and developing the Long Term Care Facility will be the regulatory issues. There are very many regulatory requirements that will need to be observed and this may need the services of a lawyer who understand healthcare laws and regulations to develop a compliance report. At the same time, some medical professional factors will also play a big part. The development is the facility will therefore be a combined effort of all the possible stakeholders in order to guarantee that it is the best and will be able to provide these services to the beneficiaries. Gantt chart References: Dunlop, B. (1976). Determinants of Long-term Care Facility Utilization by the Elderly: An Empirical Analysis. --. New York, NY: Urban Institute. United States. Public Health Service. Office of Nursing Home Affairs. (1975). Long-term care facility survey, interim report. New York, NY: .S. Public Health Service. White, S. (2007). The Nurse Practitioner in Long-term Care: Guidelines for Clinical Practice. New York, NY: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Read More