Table 9-1. (continued)

OBSERVING ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIOR 20'

 

Police. arrive with stretcher.
Announce in loud voices that they
have a woman who fell down and
passed out. She is lying still on
stretcher with eyes closed, covered.
All other patients sitting in corridor
lean forward in chairs to look. The
stretcher will not fit through corri-
dor where patients are sitting.
Police snuggle to maneuver stretch—
er through the crowd of nurses and
doctors in the nursing station to get
to uncrowded corridor on other
side. Patient is put in examining
room. Curtain pulled part-way
closed by last policeman to leave.
Patients waiting in corridor have
full view of patient in exam room.

A policeman wheels stretcher out
back door into middle of waiting
area, while another tells a nurse the
details about the woman they
brought in, leaning over counter at
nurse’s station.

Nurse leaves nurse’s station, walks
around counter into corridor, scans
all patients waiting there. She
walks up to one man who isseated,
stands three feet away and tells him
the results of lab tests and what they
mean. Doctor walks over and asks
same patient to go into exam room
with him.

Doctor’s voice, shouting angrily,
comes from an exam room.

Doctor leaves nurse’s station,
approaches woman waiting in
wheelchair, pulls up a chair, sits
down beside her, and talks in low
tones. Other patients sitting nearby
watch and occasionally speak to
each other.

Sound of friendly chatter, laughing
from one exam room.

Why do they announce it? For nurses
to clear a path?

Patients looking again! Is it just some-
thing to do?

Hallway waiting causes traffic prob-
lems for stretcher cases.

This probably bothers patients being
examined.

This public discussion surely seems
like an invasion of privacy.

Nurse in her "station" cannot see the
informal or overflow waiting area in
corridor. What are the design impli-
cations? Behavior of nurse in telling
lab results is another type of invasion
of privacy.

What acoustical control is needed in
exam rooms?

Consultation in waiting areas may be
standard emergency-room procedure?
Is there a way to allow this to take
place but provide more privacy?

Does this perhaps relax people in
waiting area?

 

Field notes by architect/researcher Polly Welch for “Hospital Emergency Facilities: Translating
Behavioral Issues into Design,” by P. Welch. (Graham Foundation Fellowship Report)
Cambridge, Mass.: Architecture Research Office, Harvard Graduate School of Design, 1977.