Department rooms nomenclature

Hello everybody!

During the design process we have encountered various issues when trying to create some cool, clear and brief names for our examination rooms/units. We have made some research in nomenclature of hospital rooms,  but we would like to hear/read from you all, if our selected names are good enough to be understood by casual players as by those with some kind of medical education. Examination room will be place equiped by various machines providing separated diagnostics/treatments by trained professionals with related skills.

There is a list of our examination rooms / units with some related medical equipment. (if you don't see some of your favourite medical equipment, don't panic, there is a good chance, that is placed somewhere else)

Cardiovascular diagnostic unit - ECG, Echo

Diagnostic sonography unit - USG, Elastograph, Therapy shockwave

Neurodiagnostic unit - EEG, Campimeter, Tonometer


So this is it and if you have some comments, ideas, proposals, feel free to share them with us. We thank you in advance

Wow. That's deeper than I expected you'd go. That's cool though.
Cardio would just not be cardio without the treadmill (Exercise stress test[EST]) which is commonly used to offer prognostic risk of near future coronary event, and clear someone with chest pain for discharge home post stay for chest pain.
Shockwave therapy would be more of a surgical item as it is used by surgeons as opposed to diagnostics. (Or is in Australia anyway)
Campimeter and Tonometer tend to be more Ophthalmic than Neuro but I guess they could be linked as I understand there will be no ophthal unit initially.

Each hospital calls their units whatever they want and often it is broken into sections depending on severity. CVIU (for cardiovascular investigation unit) is one we use commonly. This can be broken into Cardiovascular Intensive Care (CVICU), Coronary care (CCU) and Cardiac Step Down (CSD) Honestly the names are largely all irrelevant and are easily interchangeable.

Diagnostic sonography over here is colocated with radiology purely because the techs often do a mixture of imaging services and we literally just call the department 'Ultrasound'

Same for Neurology... which we just call 'Neurology'


Depending on the conditions you have, consideration could be given to:
Cardio - Blood lab, holter monitor (Mobile ECG), ambulatory sphygmomanometer (Blood pressure), sestamibi - Injection of radioactive isotope to image the amount of blood perfusing the heart muscle (Nuclear Medicine aka - Radiology)
cardiac MRI and coronary angiography (catheter lab)

US and neuro I am less familiar with their more advanced stuff so others can feel free to jump in here.

I agree with scorpycfs. In cardio you need treadmill test

Other test

Neuro: electromyography(EMG) for neuromuscular diseases, MRI Angiography PET and CT scan (in some hospitals neuroimaging is separated from regular imaging), lumbar puncture (bedside, to diagnose diseases from meningitis to multiple sclerosis), neuropsychology tests (evaluating memory/tasks eg in Alzheimer disease)

Sonography: cardiac doppler, carotid doppler (mixed neuro and cardiology), abdominal US (colelytiasis/nephrolytiasis), ecoguided biopsy. In addiction to this, US is important in ED to perform EFAST (Extended Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma)

Hi, let me add a short description of how our departments are structured
The main point is that we try to keep a mostly similar list of rooms for each of the main departments, with a couple of exceptions (like radiology which provides services/imaging for everybody else). So for example some type of diagnostic unit (mentioned above) will be available for each department, but will obviously differ in equipment and the procedures performed there.

Every department can be also basically separated into a clinic/outpatient part and a bigger section taking care of hospitalized patients, being able to do surgery etc.

Here's a generalized list of rooms that I put together for the old forum:

For outpatients:
- Waiting room
- (Specialized) doctor's office

For inpatients:
- On call room - doctors reside here
- Nurses station - nurses reside here
- Common room - members of staff relax here
- Operating room
- Normal priority inpatient ward
- High priority inpatient ward
- (Specialized) inpatient office - for more common examinations
- (Specialized) diagnostic units - for more advanced examinations techniques/equipment

Shared:
- Reception
- WC
- (Specialized) STAT lab

Hopefully I haven't missed too many - then there are some specific to ER, ICU or Radiology:

- Trauma center (or shock room, ER only)
- Observation (ER only)
- ICU
- Rooms for X-Ray, MRI, ... (Radiology only)

Sounds good. Shock Room we call Resuscitation.
The more I think about it, the more I think we're coming at it backwards, it would be easier to assess what would be important to diagnose an issue from the illness itself. No rush though. I think this one was focused on nomenclature so let us know what you need interpreted.

Trauma center in medical jargon is the whole hospital capable to manage difficult traumas (eg good ED, trauma surgeons, rehabilitation wards, etc).

Shock room (in most Europe) or resuscitation room (Anglo-Saxon) is a room in the emergency department where you treat the worst cases such as cardiac arrest, big trauma, septic shock etc.

I definitly agree with scorpycfs ...Good idea man

In my case , the biggest hospital here (Graz) is a university hospital with the maximum ammount of clinics an departments ...so my ideas would be: (most used ones in the ambulance service)

1. A emergency/shock room for patients with neurological or internal problems.. (We call it the EBA --> translatet in English this would be like --> First Treatment --> Observation --> Stationary Admission

2.. The Urological Deparment --> For all kinds of treatments with the Urogenital-System...

3. The Gynecological department --> For all Female Patients and Pregnant Patients..

4. Dermatology Department --> For issues with Skin , Allergic Reactions and also for venous thrombosis and so on,,

5. Intensiv Care Units --> Here i'm not really sure how we can do this ...Normally every Bigger Department has it's own ICU...

6. Pediatric Emergency Department --> Here in graz we split this one in two departments..One for all internal and neurological or internal diseases ..and one for injuries and all thinks that would be treatet by a surgeon

Just a little input from my side

Oh, I've just realized some of you probably haven't seen the list of departments we plan to squeeze into the finished game - here it is:
(Radiology and ICU support the other departments, emergency is the main entry point)

Could you add an X-Ray to the Radiology Department? Then we would have everything together

Paramedic42_AUT wrote:Could you add an X-Ray to the Radiology Department? Then we would have everything together

It's there, and so is angiography - the infographic only shows two specific examples for each deparment

Alright then, i'm happy

jan.oxymoron wrote:Hi, let me add a short description of how our departments are structured
The main point is that we try to keep a mostly similar list of rooms for each of the main departments, with a couple of exceptions (like radiology which provides services/imaging for everybody else). So for example some type of diagnostic unit (mentioned above) will be available for each department, but will obviously differ in equipment and the procedures performed there.

Every department can be also basically separated into a clinic/outpatient part and a bigger section taking care of hospitalized patients, being able to do surgery etc.

Here's a generalized list of rooms that I put together for the old forum:

For outpatients:
- Waiting room
- (Specialized) doctor's office

For inpatients:
- On call room - doctors reside here
- Nurses station - nurses reside here
- Common room - members of staff relax here
- Operating room
- Normal priority inpatient ward
- High priority inpatient ward
- (Specialized) inpatient office - for more common examinations
- (Specialized) diagnostic units - for more advanced examinations techniques/equipment

Shared:
- Reception
- WC
- (Specialized) STAT lab

Hopefully I haven't missed too many - then there are some specific to ER, ICU or Radiology:

- Trauma center (or shock room, ER only)
- Observation (ER only)
- ICU
- Rooms for X-Ray, MRI, ... (Radiology only)

So if i understand it properly, there is a list of "places" thats available for each specialty and you would love to hit them with the best names right?

Glademist wrote:So if i understand it properly, there is a list of "places" thats available for each specialty and you would love to hit them with the best names right?

Exactly, especially the ones Igor mentioned up top:

Cardiovascular diagnostic unit - ECG, Echo
Diagnostic sonography unit - USG, Elastograph, Therapy shockwave
Neurodiagnostic unit - EEG, Campimeter, Tonometer

Ok, so if I understand correct, every department (except radio) can place a cardio unit, sono unit and neuro unit?! and the performances there differ from the department?!

the names seem to be good so far but a machine for an Echo is basically an USG (maybe Sonograph). And as the others said an electromyograph for EMG in Neuro and an ergometer/dynamometer for cardiac stress test in Cardio is missing. Maybe an cw-Doppler in cardio (angio).
therapy shockwave = extracorporeal shockwave therapy (these devices unfortunatally got no basic name, and i guess are very uncommen nowadays)

Quick question concerning the departments: is there a laboratory department or how and who are the blood samples/mikrobiologie test/urin samples and so on are processed?

Sparky wrote:
Quick question concerning the departments: is there a laboratory department or how and who are the blood samples/mikrobiologie test/urin samples and so on are processed?

Regarding labs - they're not designed as a standalone department, but a specialized STAT lab is available for each department to analyze all the relevant kinds of samples.

jan.oxymoron wrote:Oh, I've just realized some of you probably haven't seen the list of departments we plan to squeeze into the finished game - here it is:
(Radiology and ICU support the other departments, emergency is the main entry point)

Looks good. Good job!
You could be missing an anesthesiology department. You wouldn't have much surgery done without them. However it could be argued that they are employed in the intensive care unit. However, then I would consider the ICU to be a subunit of an anesthesiology department.

What about pulmonology? The hospitals are full of people with COPD.

Dysp wrote:You could be missing an anesthesiology department. You wouldn't have much surgery done without them. However it could be argued that they are employed in the intensive care unit. However, then I would consider the ICU to be a subunit of an anesthesiology department.

Uhh i have to agree on this. You really should consider this. That bugged me a lot in all the other hospital games. The solution sounds quit good. Its the anesthesiology department that handles ICU and the operating Rooms on one side. This makes maybe the Surgery Wing way more complicated cause it is an area for 2 departments and this is not considered right now i guess.

Edit: Ok, maybe it is easier if one group just "visit" the surgery wing to do the job or you call the ER just anesthesiology department and you need some extra anesthesiologist for the surgery department.

Well, i think some aspects of the game are allready unbalanced in terms of complication. Adding anesthesiology along with ICU and Surgery is another
thing to micro manage based on actual gameplay.

An anesthesiologist in a surgical ward can be safely displayed as a "cost" to run the surgical ward. Unless the developer wants a minigame for anesthesia introduction
and the following surgery.

I think it would be great to add an anesthiology room next to the operating room, where the patient just transit, the micromanagment will not be an obligation and can be managed by itself, but it would add more realism to a surgery sequence in my opinion. but again this have to be simplified but i think its worth it

I wanted to ask, whether each of the department has acces to just ONE of the rooms in the list, or whether you actually can have different rooms of the same arche-type for the department.

As in lets say - "Electrocardiogram" and a "Echocardiography". Both are specialized. Or if we have to compress them all into one "well known" name?

Glademist wrote:I wanted to ask, whether each of the department has acces to just ONE of the rooms in the list, or whether you actually can have different rooms of the same arche-type for the department. As in lets say - "Electrocardiogram" and a "Echocardiography". Both are specialized. Or if we have to compress them all into one "well known" name?

I think they want the names for the machines and the machines are used inside these 3 rooms they call Units.

Ultrasound Unit (the Room) - Sonograph (the machine) - Echocardiography (the examination) --> aortic valve insufficiency (the diagnosis) --> aortic valve replacement (the treatment)

and these are available for every Department but for neuro something like

Ultrasound Unit (the Room) - Sonograph (the machine) - transcraniell ultrasound (the examination) --> hydrocephalus (the diagnosis) --> ventricular shunt (the treatment)

As Paramedic14 said...It would be great to have an Pre-Operating Monitoring Unit...Just for Patients who come out of the Operation Theater..and go into the Monitorised Supervision

Paramedic42_AUT wrote:As Paramedic14 said...It would be great to have an Pre-Operating Monitoring Unit...Just for Patients who come out of the Operation Theater..and go into the Monitorised Supervision

Oh no, more work for the anesthesiologists who are not even there yet... man they need a raise

Hi all, happy to confirm anesthesiologists will be indeed in the game, although as employees of the individual specialized departments.

A bit of reasoning: it makes sense to keep the departments as independent as possible, so players can keep extending their hospitals department by department, instead of having to build almost everything straight away.
So, for example to be able to perform surgery, a department needs two specialized surgeons, one anesthesiologist and one surgical nurse.

Cool!

In the real world, an anesthesiologist would have the responsibility for the pre-op consultation and while surgery is going on, have the responsibility of several operating rooms (if anything out of the ordinary happens), while special anesthesiologist nurses would be present in the actual room and monitor the patient.
Your solution is probably better from a development perspective, but I just thought I would share how it is actually done.

Here is a simple flow chart example of a patient going through surgery:

1. Patient arrives at hospital to complain about symptoms.
2. Patient is diagnosed and surgery is chosen as treatment, either acute (appendicitis) or elective (carpal tunnel syndrome).
3. Pre-operation consultation (assess ability to anaesthetize and potential breathing difficulties)
4. Actual surgery
5. Post-operation observation
6. Recovery
7. Discharge from hospital

People involved in the steps:

1. Nurse or staff
2. Doctor
3. Anesthesiologist
4. Surgeons, anesthesiologist nurse, surgical nurse and anesthesiologist on call
5. Nurses and doctors on call (special monitoring)
6. Nurses and doctors on call (normal department)
7. Doctor and nurse