By Jeff Saporito for Grid World News
No health care system in the world is perfect -- most are quite the opposite. Getting good medical care is a complicated, tiring, lengthy process. For many, it is downright expensive. Ever wondered what an almost perfect, efficient, modernized health system would look like? The National Physical Laboratory of UK and Imperial College London are here to show you, as they have experimented with the advanced capabilities of our Linden world to create a new, unique hospital system.
The Second Health Hospital is designed as a local hospital, with all the amenities to handle inpatient and day case care for an area population of up to 250,000. When first arriving at the hospital, it can be a bit daunting to understand exactly how to navigate the area. Fact is everything around you is the experiment, as signs soon explain.
A sign at the entrance states the hospital is meant to give people a “feeling for how this type of hospital could serve patients in the future.” Essentially, the entire hospital is a big demonstration; a model of a working facility. Carefully built and detailed down to the last wall-mounted dispenser of hand sanitizer, the structure is an exceptionally vast and complex piece of architecture. Its contained experiment is no less interesting. Starting with the largest of the six main buildings on the hospital campus, the polyclinic, the exhibition for the project begins.
At the exterior of each building is a video screen. Each screen, when approached, begins a beautifully crafted machinima of how that particular building works within the hospital system. Role-plays, information, medical procedures, care information and more are discussed at each, establishing purpose for the building and explaining its responsibility in the overall system. The polyclinic, for instance, is an establishment where urgent care centers, diagnostic testing facilities, multiple general practitioners, consultants and specialists can all be seen, instead of traveling to multiple locations or hospitals as most people currently do. Upon the completion of these videos, people are urged to physically tour the inside of the buildings to get a complete grasp of the information it presented. Each video is structured to not only inform people about how each hospital building works, but how they make the infrastructure of providing care more efficient.
As stated, the polyclinic is only one of six buildings in the system. The next stop on its tour is a 24-hour acute care center, attending to trauma, heart attack and stroke victims, with the technology required to aid those people. Following that is day care and endoscopy, with follow-up outreach and home services. The second largest building is the long-term care center, where people with lifelong diseases like diabetes can be treated and avoid general practitioner or hospital visits. Specialized people for each long-term disease would be present. Next up is the prevention building, whose services would be malleable to reflect the prevention needs of the community it served. The final building deals with wellbeing, with gyms, pool, and personal wellness assistance. Each building is also decorated with medical propaganda and reading information about pretty much every human ailment one can think of.
The project is seriously complex and interesting, as everyone has had a nightmare story when it comes to health care. The videos and physical tours provide insight and many valuable suggestions on how to improve health care. Perhaps the most amazing fact about the system is they are relying on user opinion to determine its future, showing that it is truly concerned with helping people.
There is plenty more to explore than is mentioned here. For more in-depth information, visit the hospital yourself, and check out its website.