A Study on the Spatial Proximity if In-Patient Departments and Movement Patterns in DHQ Hospitals for Reduction of Congestion

Abstract

This study aims to explore the impact of spatial configuration on usage patterns of healthcare facilities in DHQ’s of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province to look for suitable ways to alleviate traffic. One of the healthcare system's main responsibilities is to provide timely, affordable, and accessible healthcare services. However, hospital overcrowding has been made worse by the growing demand for healthcare. Hospitals are complicated spaces that need to be moved around efficiently for visitors, employees, and patients; nevertheless, many of them suffer from traffic because of inadequate spatial arrangements. This research applies space syntax to assess how hospital buildings are arranged, especially the spatial proximity of inpatient departments (IPDs). The results show that the regions with high low mean depth values and high connectivity are appropriate for the placement of units in a hospital context. A highly comprehensible hospital reduces confusion, needless movement, and traffic by enabling people to deduce important locations from their environment. Based on the analysis spatial reconfigurations are suggested to increase overall patient and staff movement efficiency, reduce travel distances, and improve connection in order to ease traffic and raise the standard of care provided in DHQ hospitals.