• SubTitle: Ambulatory Surgery Unit
  • Author/s: Susan O'Hara, O'Hara HealthCare Consultants; Mark Sullivan, Mark Sullivan Architects; and Henry Bell, Smoky Mountain Simulation Services
  • Source: 36th Conference on Winter Simulation
  • Date: 2004

Healthcare architecture design of a new ambulatory surgery unit explores the relationship between the number of operating rooms and recovery beds, the number of cases and the phases of recovery, bed capacity, staffing, and waiting room seat requirements as each affected the design. Model results allowed time for variations in the design to meet the client's needs before the project was built. Furthermore, the simulation shows the positive outcome of combining the experience of three professional disciplines: healthcare planning, architecture, and simulation modeling for nurses, doctors and patients of the new ambulatory surgery unit.