Research On The Effect Of Spatial Combination Of Emergency Department On Treatment Efficiency

The rapid process of urbanization has significantly improved the quality of social services,but also has developed the risk of exposure in the threat posed by natural disasters.Emergency departments(EDs)of hospitals are key facilities to provide essential medical services in emergency situations,but they also have its own vulnerability and inefficiency.This study therefore attempts to find out the effect of the layout of the building space on medical treatment efficiency from patients' perspective.By applying both methods of theoretical analysis and simulation analysis,two types of spatial pattern were compared and disaster scenarios were simulated,aiming to assess the responsiveness of both spatial patterns under the turbulence caused by disaster.First,the study of functional and spatial structure of EDs was conducted,and common types of diseases and corresponding emergency treatment processes are identified.Based on the basic knowledge of ED,spatial analysis was carried out in aid of both space syntax analysis and streamline analysis as analytical tools,assessing and comparing conciseness,smoothness and reasonableness of both types of spatial pattern.The field study was then conducted in order to verify the credibility of theoretical analysis.Then,the emergency medical treatment model was built in accordance with the real situation with proper assumptions.The system was structured based on actual process of medical treatment in ED,and the input parameters and variables were set based on the conclusions drew from theoretical analysis,data acquired through field study,and statistical data obtained from existing studies.Based on this model,the patients' transfer routes in two ED spatial patterns were simulated and medical treatment efficiency were analyzed and compared based on the output data of the model.The model was verified through field investigation,and the defects of the model were found.Finally,this study simulated the earthquake scenarios as the application of the emergency medical treatment model.The input data were adjusted according to the statistics of the short-term changes of medical needs from existing studies on 2008 Wenchuan earthquake.Through this simulation,two types of spatial pattern were evaluated and compared in terms of their overall performances and adaptability deducted from volatility of performance caused by the change of input data.In light of the result obtained from the comparative analysis,the study found that radial pattern has superior result compared to linear pattern in terms of both absolute performance and relative volatility,inferring that the ED of general hospitals in big cities prone to earthquake are suggested to adopt the radial pattern design to ensure the comparatively better medical treatment efficiency from patients' perspective.This study summarized the spatial and functional structure of ED,developed the emergency medical treatment model,conducted comparative analysis between two types of layout with different spatial pattern,revealed the influence of the spatial pattern on the medical treatment efficiency,and highlighted the importance of pattern choice in spatial design while providing recommendations for ED.