HCS 446 Week 3 Facility Floor Plan Example

Two Doors, One Living Room and No Blind Corners: The Floor Plan for a 24,000-Square-Foot Behavioral Health Crisis Center, Zone by Zone

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

HCS/446: Facility Planning

Week 3 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The building, its dimensions and its staffing are composites written for a model paper; design research and guidelines come from the sources listed.

The facility selected last week is a crisis receiving and stabilization center for a composite county, to be built in a former urgent care building of 18,000 square feet with a new addition of about 6,000 square feet. The functional program calls for two entrances, triage and intake, an observation area with 16 recliners, a short-term unit with 16 beds, medical and support spaces and staff areas. This paper describes the floor plan zone by zone and explains the reasoning behind each placement.

Organizing Ideas

Three ideas organize the plan. First, people arrive in different ways and states, so there are two entrances. Second, staff must see patients easily without the building feeling like a jail, so the core spaces are open around a central station. Third, calm is a safety strategy, so the plan uses daylight, private rooms, outdoor space and quiet materials. Ulrich et al. (2008) reviewed research showing that features such as single rooms, noise control, daylight and access to nature reduce stress and improve safety in health care settings.

Zone One: The Walk-In Entrance

The public entrance faces the main street and the bus stop. A small lobby with daylight, plants and comfortable chairs leads to a reception window where a peer specialist greets arrivals. Glass at the entrance is laminated for safety but looks ordinary. A family waiting room with a private consultation room sits beside the lobby.

Zone Two: The Vehicle Entrance

On the side street, a covered and gated sally port lets police cars and ambulances pull inside before anyone gets out. A short corridor with a secure door leads directly to intake. Police hand over a person at a counter with a two-way window and a quick checklist, meeting the county's ten-minute target. Separating the police door from the family door keeps a person in handcuffs from being the first thing a frightened walk-in sees.

Zone Three: Triage and Intake

Both entrances meet at triage, where a nurse and a clinician assess each person. The zone includes a medical exam room for vital signs and basic tests, a private search room with a changing area and a secure storage room for belongings. A second exam room handles anyone who may need transfer to the hospital emergency department.

Zone Four: The Observation Living Room

Beyond triage, the observation area is a large open room of about 2,400 square feet with 16 heavy recliners arranged in small groups rather than rows, large windows with views of trees and access to a small walled patio. The staff station sits at the center, slightly raised and open, so staff can see every recliner and talk with patients across a low counter. Two calming rooms, small quiet spaces with soft lighting, open off this area for people who need less stimulation.

Zone Five: The Short-Term Unit

The addition holds 16 single bedrooms, each with a private bathroom, arranged in a U around a courtyard garden. A second staff station at the opening of the U sees down both corridors. A dayroom, a quiet room and a laundry for patients complete the unit.

Why Single Rooms and a Garden

Ulrich et al. (2018) compared a psychiatric facility designed with stress-reducing features, including single rooms with private bathrooms, gardens, movable seating and reduced crowding and noise, with the older facility it replaced, and reported fewer compulsory injections for agitation and less physical restraint after the move. The short-term unit applies those lessons.

Zone Six: Clinical Support

A medication room, a small laboratory draw area, a clean supply room and a soiled utility room sit between the observation area and the short-term unit so nurses can serve both without long walks. Consultation rooms for psychiatrists and social workers line the corridor.

Zone Seven: Staff and Building Support

Staff areas, a break room with windows, lockers, restrooms and a small office suite sit behind the clinical zones with their own entrance from the parking lot. Mechanical rooms, housekeeping and a loading door for supplies are on the building's back side.

Safety Features

All patient areas use ligature-resistant fixtures and door hardware, furniture too heavy to lift or fixed in place and ceilings that cannot be climbed into. Cameras cover entrances and corridors but not bedrooms or bathrooms. Every door from patient areas to staff areas uses card access. Doors to bedrooms swing both ways so staff cannot be barricaded out.

Flow and Paths

Tracing four paths tested the plan. A walk-in moves from lobby to triage to the living room without crossing the police path. A police transport moves from sally port to intake without passing public areas. A nurse moves from the central station to the medication room in under 30 steps. Supplies arrive at the back door and reach the clean supply room without passing through patient areas.

Adapting the Existing Building

Working inside a former urgent care building shaped several choices. Its existing exam rooms along the front became triage and consultation rooms with little change, which saved money. Its waiting room was too small for the observation area, so two interior walls were removed to create the living room, with a structural engineer confirming which walls could go. Its plumbing ran along the north side, which is why the medication room and clean utility sit there. The addition was placed on the south side, where the lot had space and the bedrooms could face the courtyard and the afternoon sun rather than the parking lot.

Accessibility and Infection Prevention

Doors are at least 42 inches wide, bathrooms include accessible fixtures and all floors are on one level. Hand hygiene stations stand at the entrance to each zone, and finishes are chosen for cleaning.

What the Plan Avoided

The plan avoids long double-loaded corridors, which make supervision harder, locked seclusion rooms in the observation area, bars on windows and a single shared entrance. National design guidelines from the Facility Guidelines Institute (2022) set the minimums the plan meets, but the plan's goals go beyond them.

Conclusion

The floor plan turns the functional program into seven zones organized around two entrances, open supervision and calm. Research on design and psychiatric environments supports its single rooms, garden and living room layout. Next week, the plan will be checked against the codes and regulations that govern crisis facilities and against expected use.

References

Facility Guidelines Institute. (2022). Guidelines for design and construction of outpatient facilities. Facility Guidelines Institute.

Ulrich, R. S., Bogren, L., Gardiner, S. K., & Lundin, S. (2018). Psychiatric ward design can reduce aggressive behavior. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 57, 53-66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2018.05.002

Ulrich, R. S., Zimring, C., Zhu, X., DuBose, J., Seo, H., Choi, Y., Quan, X., & Joseph, A. (2008). A review of the research literature on evidence-based healthcare design. HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal, 1(3), 61-125. https://doi.org/10.1177/193758670800100306