The Impact of Infusion Center Layout on Workflow and Satisfactions in Two Cancer Infusion Centers: A Case Study on Staff and Patients.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this empirical research is to compare nurses' operational workflow and nurses' and patients' satisfactions of two different infusion center designs. One center has a traditional open bay design and the other has semi-private bays. This study also intends to gather baseline data to compare to a future post-occupancy evaluation of a new infusion center where the two existing centers will be combined. BACKGROUND: The increasing number of patients with cancer diagnosis who refer to infusion centers highlights the importance of design of these centers. METHOD: The mixed-method approach of this study involves shadowing nurses and surveying nurses and patients. Data collection captured nurses' activities, activity durations, and nurses' and patients' satisfaction with the design of clinics. RESULTS: Comparison of shadowing data indicated that although the infusion centers have different layouts, there are no significant differences in the activities or time spent by nurses in different areas among the centers. Staff, however, have different satisfaction levels with visual and speech privacy, ability to concentrate without distraction, collaboration with other staff, and the process of medication delivery. Patients also had slightly different satisfaction levels with their ability to communicate with staff and design of bays. CONCLUSION: This research sheds light on operational workflows and satisfaction of staff and patients in two different infusion center design. Considering the limited studies on these settings, this study serves as baseline data to compare to other studies on cancer infusion centers and addresses issues of benchmarking and staff and patient satisfaction.