Waiting Area Research Articles

Morning in the Surgical Waiting Area

Morning in the Surgical Waiting Area

Privacy Level in Private Community Pharmacies in Saudi Arabia: A Simulated Client Survey

Background: Maintaining privacy during patient counseling is critical, especially with respect to sensitive client issues. In general, community pharmacy practice in Saudi Arabia is considered substandard in several aspects, particularly with respect to the privacy it offers to pharmacy clients. However, to date, maintenance of privacy in Saudi Arabian community pharmacies has not been studied using a practical, measurable method. Objective: This study investigates the level and quality of privacy offered by community pharmacies in Madinah, Saudi Arabia. Methods: This study randomly selected 80 pharmacies, which were visited by a simulated client and a simulated customer who were instructed to engage in a standard scenario. During each pharmacy visit, the simulated client asked the on-duty pharmacist about the correct use of a medication intended for a vaginal disease. The simulated customer pretended to look for a nonmedical product on the shelf nearest to where the client-pharmacist consultation took place and observed whether the conversation was audible. Further, privacy facilities and pharmacist behaviors were documented. Results: A designated consultation area was found in only one pharmacy; however, it was not used and not designed as separate from the pharmacist’s counter. Although a designated waiting area was found in the same pharmacy, it was located too close for privacy to be maintained. Other physical measures of privacy were unavailable in all the other pharmacies. Regarding the simulated client-pharmacist consultation, the conversation was audible to the simulated customer in 63% of the pharmacies. Further, in most of the visited pharmacies, there was only one pharmacist on duty. Finally, a female pharmacist was found in only one pharmacy. Conclusions: The study concludes that a critical insufficiency in privacy exists in community pharmacies in Saudi Arabia. It reveals that most pharmacies must be infrastructurally redesigned to provide acceptable privacy levels. Further, the number of on-duty pharmacists should be increased, and pharmacies should employ more female pharmacists.

Exploration Of Surface-Programme Relationship As A Basis To Promote Hand Hygiene In Healthcare Waiting Area Setting

Within a healthcare facility, surface directly correlates with the existing healthcare programme, as it allows the programme to perform in the space. In particular, this surface-programme relationship contributes towards the occurrence of disease transmission as contaminated surfaces have a significant impact on infection potential when healthcare staffs or patients come into contact with these surfaces. This paper presents a preliminary study that explores the spatial layout of a particular healthcare waiting area setting. The surface-programme relationship is analysed to reveal the potential of contact between surface and users. The results of observation and analysis indicated critical areas in the layout where hand hygiene practice becomes essential. It provides a recommendation on how hand hygiene could be promoted through the spatial configuration to prevent the possibility of infection. Overall, this paper gives a new perspective and a better understanding of how to respond to the healthcare-associated infection generally and the industrial demand on technological advancement in healthcare settings specifically.

Randomized Trial Evaluating the Effectiveness of Coloring on Decreasing Anxiety Among Parents in a Pediatric Surgical Waiting Area

Anxiety is common among pediatric surgical patients and their parents. Numerous studies have examined interventions to reduce pediatric patients' anxiety; however, less is known about reducing parental anxiety. In other populations, producing art has been shown to significantly reduce anxiety. PurposeThis study aimed to determine whether parents' anxiety decreased after coloring while their child is in surgery. Design and MethodsA block randomized controlled trial was conducted with a convenience sample of 106 parents of children who were having a scheduled surgery. Each day of data collection was randomized where all parents enrolled that day would either color a pre-drawn art template for 30min or would simply wait in the waiting room for 30min. The primary outcome measure was anxiety, measured by the 6-item short form of the Spielberger State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). ResultsParents' average anxiety score decreased from the initial measurement to the measurement 30min later in both the control group and the intervention group. The reduction in anxiety was significantly greater for those parents who participated in coloring during their wait (p<0.0001). ConclusionsColoring is a creative, simple, low cost, and effective activity to reduce anxiety among parents in a pediatric surgical waiting area. Practice ImplicationsProviding coloring materials and information about the benefits of coloring in pediatric surgery waiting areas is an easy to implement intervention to reduce parental anxiety.

Using Micro-Simulation VISSIM to Study the Effectiveness of Left-Turn Waiting Area Implementation

Numerous attempts have been made to improve the existing intersection systems to maximize capacity and reduce the delay costs and queues. This paper introduces a simulation method to study the effectiveness of a new technique introduced recently in China – the left-turn waiting area. This has an extended left lane that allows the vehicles to wait before the signal turns green. It is reported that this system can significantly improve intersection performance. This paper introduces the different types of left-turn waiting areas which have been widely implemented in China. The method of using micro-simulation VISSIM to study the effectiveness of left-turn waiting area is proposed in this paper, along with some preliminary results of a case study.

Increasing the capacity of signalized intersections with left-turn waiting areas

One of the most complex issues for the design of at-grade signalized intersections is accommodating left-turn (LT) movements, especially when approaches have insufficient available spatial resources. In this study, we mitigated this problem by reorganizing left-turning traffic flows within intersections through the use of a left-turn waiting area (LTWA). We proposed a series of design pattern left-turn waiting areas for different combinations of spatial and temporal treatments of left-turn movements: exclusive left-turn lanes with protected left-turn phasing, exclusive left-turn lanes with permitted left-turn phasing, and shared left-turn lanes with permitted left-turn phasing. Based on probability theory, an analytical procedure is developed for estimating the capacity of shared and short lanes. Explicit VISSIM simulations are conducted to validate the accuracy of the proposed capacity models, and the impact of design parameters for the proposed system on the left-turn capacity are studied. On the basis of the analyses, benefits of the proposed system are identified, and the domain of application where these benefits are most significant is identified. In addition, optimal LTWA design scheme and critical LT volumes of exclusive LT lane and protected LT phase with different LTWA schemes are presented from the operation efficiency perspective.

The Role of Maternity Waiting Area in Improving Obstetric Outcomes: A Comparative Cross-sectional Study, Jinka Zonal Hospital, Southern Regional State

Background: Maternity Waiting Areas also called Maternity Waiting Homes are residential facilities, located near a recognized medical facility, where non-laboring pregnant women from remote areas stay awaiting their delivery and be transferred to the medical facility shortly before delivery. Research indicates that 99% of all maternal mortalities occur in the developing countries. Ethiopia is a major contributor to the world-wide death of mothers. Maternity Waiting Areas, an approach designed to improve access of rural mothers to comprehensive emergency obstetric care has been introduced three decades ago in Ethiopia. Methods: Hospital-based comparative cross-sectional study was conducted. Results: Only 16.7% of the total 516 mothers were admitted to the Maternity Waiting Areas of which 90.7% were from rural areas. Almost all mothers from the Maternity Waiting Areas (98.8%) delivered at the hospital with relatively reduced occurrence of the bad obstetric outcomes of interest when compared to the mothers from home. More than 53% of the mothers who reported late to labor ward were mothers from rural areas. Mothers from the Maternity Waiting Areas were 97% less likely to experience prolonged PROM when compared to the home group, AOR and 95% CI: 0.03 (0.01, 0.24). They had also 74% lesser odds of experiencing delay in admission to labor ward when in labor, AOR and 95% CI: 0.25 (0.15, 0.43). The collective bad obstetric outcomes were reduced by 27.5% from 61.2% prevalence in the home group to 33.7% in the Maternity Waiting Areas group, AOR and 95% CI: 0.32 (0.20, 0.53). Conclusion: Mothers from the Maternity Waiting Areas had been protected from the risk of intrauterine infections and thereby from maternal and perinatal complications unlike mothers from home.

Analysis of an Effective Waiting Area in Urban Railway Platform

Analysis of an Effective Waiting Area in Urban Railway Platform

Research on Straight Waiting Area Layout of an Intersection

The establishment of a waiting area in an intersection with a complex traffic flow is investigated. With the adoption of the basic conditions of a waiting area, capacity and delay models are established to examine the differences in the capacities of and delays in an intersection with and without a waiting area. Signal control parameters, such as green-light interval time and effective green-light time, are also studied. The increase in capacity and reduction in delay from the setting of a waiting area are deduced by using accurate mathematical equations. With the use of actual intersections as examples, traffic operation efficiency was analyzed through simulation. Simulation results can be summarized as follows: generally, under high flow rate and saturation conditions, setting a straight waiting area can adequately utilize the intersection spare space, improve usage efficiency of straight lanes, and maximally realize reciprocal transformation between time and space. Consequently, the capacity of straight lanes is improved, the delay per vehicle is reduced, the capacity of the intersection is enhanced to some extent, and the delay in the entire intersection is reduced, thereby verifying the validity and applicability of the model.

Multiobjective Evaluation of Left-Turn Waiting Areas at Signalized Intersections in China

This study presents a procedure for evaluating the impacts of left-turn waiting areas at signalized intersections considering multiple performance measures, including traffic operations, safety, environmental impacts, and fuel consumption. Data were collected at 33 sites in Nanjing, China. Vissim simulation models were developed for both isolated intersections and a roadway segment to evaluate the operational and environmental impacts of left-turn waiting areas at signalized intersections. The frequency of traffic conflicts associated with the left-turning traffic was considered the safety performance measure. The life-cycle cost method was used to combine different components in the total benefit for an isolated intersection. It was found that first, for an isolated signalized intersection, the implementation of left-turn waiting areas is overall economically beneficial when the storage capacity of the left-turn waiting area is more than one vehicle. Second, when signal coordination at arterials is considered, a set of factors may determine the overall benefits of using left-turn waiting areas, including the distance between adjacent intersections, the signal timing strategy, the size of left-turn waiting areas, and other factors. The overall benefits of using left-turn waiting areas should be determined case by case. For more than 70% of the randomly generated network cases, the lead-lag phase yields greater maximized progression bandwidth than the dual lagging phase. In this situation, it is generally recommended to implement a left-turn waiting area on one approach with a lead-lag left-turn phase. For only a few network cases in which the maximized progression bandwidth of the lag-lag phase is larger than that of the lead-lag phase, the implementation of left-turn waiting areas on both approaches with a dual-lagging left-turn phase is recommended.

Staff perceptions of live classical music in an urban medical clinic: A qualitative investigation

Despite a lack of well-controlled empirical studies to support its implementation, recorded music is often utilized in medical waiting areas. More specifically, there is a dearth of data concerning how live classical music in a medical waiting area might affect the overall environment as well as the perceptions of staff who provide medical treatment. The purpose of this qualitative investigation was to understand medical staff perceptions of live classical music in a primary care clinic waiting area. The authors implemented a live music program consisting of live classical piano and guitar music in the waiting area of a small urban clinic. The researchers conducted individual semi-structured interviews with eight medical personnel who worked at the clinic. Data analysis was based upon Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six phases of thematic analysis. Emerging themes included: (a) the clinic is a unique arts-filled healthcare provider; (b) live music is different than recorded music; (c) live music blends without overpowering the environment; (d) live music facilitates non-medical interaction; and (e) beneficial affective results of the live music. Overall, medical staff perceived the presence of live classical music in the clinic waiting area positively and all interviewees requested increases in the frequency of the live music. Based upon a mutually advantageous collaborative partnership between a university music therapy program and a university medical clinic, the authors suggest implementing similar programs for the benefit of the patients, staff, and students. Implications for clinical practice, limitations, and suggestions for future research concerning live music in medical waiting areas are provided.

Physical design correlates of efficiency and safety in emergency departments: a qualitative examination.

The objective of this study was to explore and identify physical design correlates of safety and efficiency in emergency department (ED) operations. This study adopted an exploratory, multimeasure approach to (1) examine the interactions between ED operations and physical design at 4 sites and (2) identify domains of physical design decision-making that potentially influence efficiency and safety. Multidisciplinary gaming and semistructured interviews were conducted with stakeholders at each site. Study data suggest that 16 domains of physical design decisions influence safety, efficiency, or both. These include (1) entrance and patient waiting, (2) traffic management, (3) subwaiting or internal waiting areas, (4) triage, (5) examination/treatment area configuration, (6) examination/treatment area centralization versus decentralization, (7) examination/treatment room standardization, (8) adequate space, (9) nurse work space, (10) physician work space, (11) adjacencies and access, (12) equipment room, (13) psych room, (14) staff de-stressing room, (15) hallway width, and (16) results waiting area. Safety and efficiency from a physical environment perspective in ED design are mutually reinforcing concepts--enhancing efficiency bears positive implications for safety. Furthermore, safety and security emerged as correlated concepts, with security issues bearing implications for safety, thereby suggesting important associations between safety, security, and efficiency.

Traffic Impact Analysis of Urban Intersections with Comprehensive Waiting Area on Urban Intersection based on PARAMICS

To improve the traffic operation and take advantage of the space resource, left-turn vehicles waiting area and straight vehicles waiting area are adopted separately at intersection at home and abroad, but there is not much research for using left-turn and straight waiting area together at the same intersection. Research using simulation software PARAMICS combining with programming API to simulate a specific comprehensive waiting area in Guangzhou city under nine different traffic volumes for three conditions: following control strategy, underutilizing control strategy and without control strategy. By evaluating the following four indexes: link delay, queue length, link average speed and passing vehicles, the simulation results indicate that the improving effect of following control strategy is superior to the underutilizing control strategy. Implementing comprehensive waiting area and in conjunction with the following control strategy can improve traffic operation when traffic volume is larger than the surveyed situation volume while the improvement is more effectively when traffic volume continues to increase. Setting comprehensive waiting area cannot improve intersection traffic operation but will worsen the traffic operation when traffic volume is less than the surveyed situation volume.

Effects of Left-Turn Waiting Areas on Capacity and Level of Service of Signalized Intersections

Transportation professionals in China have started using an unconventional left-turn waiting area design as an innovative approach to mitigate traffic congestion at signalized intersections. The waiting area is set up beyond the stop bar at single or dual left-turn lanes at signalized intersections with lagging protected left-turn phases. This paper evaluated the effects of left-turn waiting areas on capacity and level of service of exclusive left-turn lanes at signalized intersections using empirical data. Capacity and delay models were developed by analyzing the arrival and discharge patterns of left-turning vehicles at single and dual left-turn lanes with differently sized left-turn waiting areas. The saturation headway, start-up lost time, and clearance time for left-turning passenger cars were estimated with field data measured from 22 sites. The capacity and delay models were calibrated and validated against both field-measured and simulated data. The results of sensitivity analyses showed that left-turn waiting areas increase the capacity of left-turn lanes at signalized intersections, and the capacity gains will increase with an increase in the storage capacity of the left-turn waiting areas. A procedure was proposed to determine the level of service of left-turn lanes with left-turn waiting areas at signalized intersections.

G244(P) Young People Get ACTIVE! Focus Group Involvement to Improve the Experience of Adolescent Paediatric Patients in Emergency Departments

Recent publication of ‘Standards for Children and Young People in Emergency Care Settings’ has brought involvement of young people in service design into the spotlight. Whilst many studies have focussed...

City Intersection Waiting Area Example Analysis and Simulation

Concerning great urban intersection, this paper introduced the design method of vehicle-waiting area at first. Then, it analysed the improvement of traffic(mainly about traffic capacity) after the setting of such area. By having calculation for practical example, and using Vissim simulation, we worked out the situation of delay and traffic capacity after the establishment of vehicle-waiting area. And all these finally prove the feasibility of our project.

Dairy Cow Behavior and Welfare Implications of Time Waiting Before Entry Into the Milking Parlor

The objective of this study was to investigate dairy cows' time spent in the possibly stressful waiting area (WA) of the milking parlor (MP) and their behavioral patterns while there and thereby investigate comparative effects on their welfare. The experiments were carried out in 3 loose-housing cowsheds. The study consisted of a total of 3,522 observations of individual dairy cows. Depending on the group size and the number of places in the MP, cows' waiting times in the WA were as high as 1:42:22 (h:mm:ss). In Cowsheds I and II, only one third of cows were observed ruminating in the WA, and up to 52% of cows were observed ruminating in the WA of Cowshed III where the feeding group size was the smallest, waiting time the shortest, and space per cow the largest. Cows spending more time in the WA have limited opportunities to behave normally; therefore, the welfare of these cows in particular is poor.

How Do Plants in Hospital Waiting Rooms Reduce Patient Stress?

The Journal of Alternative and Complementary MedicineVol. 18, No. 4 Guest EditorialHow Do Plants in Hospital Waiting Rooms Reduce Patient Stress?Ann Linda BaldwinAnn Linda BaldwinSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:19 Apr 2012https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2012.0116AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail View article"How Do Plants in Hospital Waiting Rooms Reduce Patient Stress?." , 18(4), pp. 309–310FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byA Clinical Preventive Strategy Based on a Digital Tool to Improve Access to Endocrine Disruptors Exposure Prevention: The MEDPREVED Study22 September 2022 | International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol. 19, No. 19Health Inequity by Design: Waiting Rooms and Patient Stress10 September 2021 | Frontiers in Communication, Vol. 6Informing Healthcare Waiting Area Design Using Transparency Attributes: A Comparative Preference Study15 November 2016 | HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal, Vol. 10, No. 4Los elementos decorativos ambientales en el Área de Imagen Médica mejoran la percepción de agradabilidad del pacienteRadiología, Vol. 56, No. 2Decorative elements in the medical imaging area improve patients’ perception of pleasantnessRadiología (English Edition), Vol. 56, No. 2 Volume 18Issue 4Apr 2012 InformationCopyright 2012, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.To cite this article:Ann Linda Baldwin.How Do Plants in Hospital Waiting Rooms Reduce Patient Stress?.The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.Apr 2012.309-310.http://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2012.0116Published in Volume: 18 Issue 4: April 19, 2012Online Ahead of Print:April 10, 2012PDF download

Can Left-turn Waiting Areas Improve the Capacity of Left-turn Lanes at Signalized Intersections?

This study estimated the operational impacts of left-turn waiting areas at signalized intersections using the VISSIM simulation technique. A procedure was proposed to model capacity of single left-turn lanes with waiting areas in VISSIM. Using data collected from 7 different sites, the VISSIM simulation model was calibrated and validated. The simulation results of the calibrated VISSIM model were compared to field measured capacity, as well as the capacity estimated using the analytical model developed in our previous studies. The calibrated VISSIM simulation model yields a Mean Absolute Percent Error (MAPE) of 8.28% for the exclusive left-turn lanes, indicating that VISSIM provides reasonable capacity estimates for left-turn lanes with waiting areas at signalized intersections. Based on the calibrated VISSIM simulation model, the capacity for left-turn lanes with waiting areas with different storage capacity was compared with the scenario for which the left-turn waiting area is not installed. The results show that the use of left-turn waiting areas could increase the capacity for the left-turn movement, and the capacity gains would increase with the increase in the size of the left-turn waiting areas.

Evaluating the Operational Impact of Left-Turn Waiting Areas at Signalized Intersections in China

Transportation professionals in China have started using left-turn waiting areas and lagging left-turn phasing to improve traffic efficiency at signalized intersections. Left-turn waiting areas are usually set up beyond the stop bar at an exclusive left-turn lane or dual left-turn lanes. This design allows left-turning vehicles to enter and wait at the left-turn waiting area after the initiation of the through phase. The operational impact of left-turn waiting areas at signalized intersections was evaluated, and the arrival and departure processes of left-turning vehicles at exclusive left-turn lanes with and without waiting areas were compared. A procedure for estimating the capacity of an exclusive left-turn lane with a waiting area was proposed. Cross-sectional analysis used data collected from 12 approaches at nine signalized intersections to compare the start-up lost time and saturation headways of left-turn passenger cars for four scenarios. The capacities of exclusive left-turn lanes with differently sized left-turn waiting areas were compared. The results indicate that left-turn waiting areas increase the capacity of exclusive left-turn lanes and that the capacity gains would increase with an increase in the storage capacity of the left-turn waiting area.