When Orlando’s Arnold Palmer Hospital began plans to create a new 273-bed, 11-story hospital across the street from its existing facility, which was bursting at the seams in terms of capacity, a massive planning process began. The $100 million building, opened in 2006, was long overdue, according to Executive Director Kathy Swanson: “We started Arnold Palmer Hospital in 1989, with a mission to provide quality services for children and women, in a comforting, family-friendly environment. Since then we have served well over 1.5 million women and children and now deliver more than 12,000 babies a year. By 2001, we simply ran out of room, and it was time for us to grow.”

Discussion Questions
1. Identify the many variables that a hospital needs to consider in layout design.
2. What are the advantages of the circular pod design over the traditional linear hallway layout found in most hospitals?
3. Figure 9.22 illustrates a sample linear hallway layout. During a period of random observation, Nurse Thomas Smith’s day includes 6 trips from the nursing station to each of the 12 patient rooms (back and forth), 20 trips to the medical supply room, 5 trips to the break room, and 12 trips to the linen supply room. What is his total distance traveled in miles?
4. Figure 9.23 illustrates an architect’s drawing of Arnold Palmer Hospital’s new circular pod system. If nurse Susan Jones’s day includes 7 trips from the nursing pod to each of the 12 rooms (back and forth), 20 trips to central medical supply, 6 trips to the break room, and 12 tips to the pod linen supply, how many miles does she walk during her shift? What are the differences in the travel times between the two nurses for this random day?
5. The concept of services capes is discussed in this chapter. Describe why this is so important at Arnold Palmer Hospital and give examples of its use in layout design.