[Email4KH]

What, besides size, are the changes you'd make in inpatient rooms?
Consider patient comfort, ergonimics and staff convenience.

[TracyB,RN]

Ohhh man...When I worked rehab, I soooo wanted a special place to put braces, gait belts, the CPM machine, & K-coolers that weren't in use. People used to just shove stuff anywhere! It was so annoying.

[Wise Woman RN]

pocket doors for the bathrooms, storage space for everything, since regs say nothing on the floor... a place for the cpm machines, highboy toilets with swing-down grab bars... user friendly paper towel holders and tp holders. storage bins in the bathroom for personal stuff. Room in the closets for a week's worth of clothing. step stools for short people to assist in positioning on the toilet or scooting back on the bed or in the chair...I could go on and on... *S*

[MS._Jen_RN]

All of the above and- Ceiling mounted lifts, shower chairs that roll easier. a cork board or something for pt's to put cards etc on, a sink in the pt's room (not just the ajoining BR), trash and laundry chutes in room, easier to use TV, light and calllight controls, bed alarms built into the beds, somewhere to put all those extra pillows used for positioning, nicer lighting that the overhead florescents and much more I can't think of right now.
~Jen

[silvergirl]

i saw this one rehab facility that had these poles near the bed from floor to ceiling the pts could use to lift themselves and stand and pivot---it was cool, but they would probably need to be able to retract into the ceiling or telescope for codes etc., also the ceiling lifts, of course bigger rooms...extra gait belts in different sizes so pp wouldnt tie knots into them to make them fit, bed tables that pull down from the ceiling to the bed, pull down tables to set our lifebooks and meds on when we get to the room, no more carpet, a locking box in the room to place floor cleaner and carpet cleaner that only staff can open like the fire extinguisher boxes in the halls that recede into the walls, for each room (we could clean right away so pts wouldnt have the embarrassment of housekeeping having to come in and clean up b&b messes while they are in the room but wait till they are at least in therapy (unless it is on carpet that is prbly a cleanup you cant put off), but hskping could come in next day to do deep cleaning for bathroom tiles, etc.

[silvergirl]

ok this one is weird but if one is desperate, in event of fire, tornado etc. You know those inflateable chutes pp use for plane evacuations that they slide down, how about ones for each floors of hospitals---I cant imagine how we would get everyone on our rehab floor out even if our evac went perfect-. I think they need to develop a prototype to test---one to use to shuttle pts out of the hospital sure it wouldnt be ideal but the alternative is dying of smoke inhalation or burns....ANYone else out there think it would be a good idea to try? They would have to be tested alot, also on high up floors if they had not just a straight slide but like fire escape ladders different levels-as if they hadfloors themselves. A staff member could be stationed on each turn to turn pt and slide them down to the next staff member....its just a thought ---hey maybe we could not only save lives but become millionaires....who knows...but like i said i would take my chances with an inflateable chute as opposed to fire....