By Healthcare Facilities Today

Staff input informed the planning of long-term care facility when Cypress Health Region developed the design and concept for Swift Current's new long-term care facility, according to an article on SWBOOSTER.com.

Health Region employees recently spent five days formulating a design for a 225-bed long-term care facility that will replace the existing 198 beds offered at the Palliser Regional Care Centre, Swift Current Care Centre and the Prairie Pioneer Lodge in Saskatchewan.

The recommended design developed with a "Production Preparation Process" was unveiled with Canadian Premier Brad Wall and Health Minister Dustin Duncan on hand. The facility will be the first Saskatchewan long-term care project built through a "3P" process, and it will also be the first long-term care facility designed via the process.

Employees began the week discussing needed amenities for the facility, and began to work through paper designs, floor plan models and full-size mock rooms.

"In a lot of ways (the process) looks at the flow of the staff interaction with the residents," Duncan said. "So it really looks at what is the most efficient type of layout for a facility that really looks to maximize the time that the staff is spending with the residents. As well as in the design and the layout, it really speaks to not just looking at it in terms of the event of building a facility, but we also have to keep in mind the operations of a facility over a number of decades."

Read the article.