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我们为什么要建造等候室？
Why Do We Keep Building Waiting Rooms?

由专筑网Cortana，小R编译

几乎每个人都讨厌等候室。以下是德克萨斯州奥斯汀市的一家咨询集团Software Advice进行的一项调查中关于等候室的四个统计，80%的受访者表示，被告知准确的等待时间可以完全或一定程度上减少他们的焦虑感；40%的受访者表示，如果去看另一位医生可以花更短的时间，他们愿意这么做；20%的受访者愿意为更快的服务支付额外的费用；97%的受访者也就是几乎是我们所有人，都对等待感到焦虑。而现在，等候室不仅是地球上最沉闷的地方，还成为世界上最容易生病的地方之一。

然而，急诊室、急诊中心、医生办公室、车管所、政府办公室、大学仍然在花费金钱，浪费宝贵的空间来建造这些可怕的区域，改变的时机早就该到了。如今已经有技术支持线上的排队管理平台，可以让人们通过手机加入虚拟的队伍，获取等待信息，平台会实时更新等待信息，人们在等待时可以去做别的事情，并在轮到自己时收到通知，甚至可以预约服务时间。

这对医疗管理者意味着什么？也许更好的问题是：病人可以在任何地方等待，或者及时在就诊前抵达，为什么医院还在建造候诊室？全球性的流行病和我们对面对面交流的新理解并不意味着我们已经不再有等待的需求，在数字技术的帮助下，我们进入了规划等待时间的时代。城市是否有能力为公共领域提供更多的空间，将是我们在短期内如何采取安全的互动方式，以及未来如何振兴地方经济的决定性因素。

Pretty much everyone hates waiting rooms. Here are four statistics about them from a survey administered by Software Advice, an Austin, Texas-based consultation group: 80% of respondents said being told the accurate wait time would either completely or somewhat minimize their frustration; 40% said they would be willing to see another physician if it meant a shorter waiting time; 20% would be willing to pay an extra fee for quicker service; and 97%—virtually all of us!—are frustrated by wait times. And now, waiting rooms, in addition to being some of the dreariest places on earth, have become one of the easiest places in the world to get sick.
And yet emergency rooms, urgent care centers, doctors’offices, DMVs, government offices, universities, continue to spend money and waste valuable real estate constructing these dreaded spaces. The time for change is long overdue. The technology exists today to virtualize waiting rooms with mobile wait-management or queue-management platforms that let people join a virtual line from their phone, get a wait forecast, roam freely while they wait, and receive a notification as their turn approaches, with wait forecast updates in real time, and even the ability to choose the time they want to be served.
What does this mean for healthcare administrators? Perhaps the better question is: When patients are free to wait anywhere, or show up just in time for service, why are hospitals still building waiting rooms? The global pandemic and our new understanding of face-to-face interaction does not mean that we have done away with the need to wait. Courtesy of digital technology, we have arrived in the age of the curated wait. The ability for cities to provide more space to the public realm will be a determining factor of how well we manage a safe approach to interaction in the short run and revive our local economies for the future.


Image Courtesy of Langdon Wilson International and Gulf Consult

许多建筑类型的建造成本非常高，例如，加利福尼亚州的普通医院建筑成本可能接近每平方英尺700美元，甚至更高。将候诊室的成本转为室内外空间的成本，并能提供休息区和零售体验，对患者和有成本意识的管理者来说都是双赢。大厅可以是一个虚拟的空间，但将实体餐厅、药店和零售业与患者护理设施合署办公，是一种重新获得时间和空间的方式。

医疗中心将门诊与住院部分割开来，可以提供良好的候诊体验。在Jaber AL Ahmad医院，一个30米高的大型中庭提供了多层次的体验，强调运动而不是坐着等待。如果当地气候允许，医院的外部空间可以帮助进一步分散活动。在由Langdon Wilson International设计的 Jaber Al Ahmad医院，有一个明显的入口顺序，将进入的病人、工作人员和访客分配到六个不同的入口节点，入口的分流减轻了人流压力，每个塔楼也都有自己的入口和等候区。灯塔在每一层突出了游客到达点的区域和沙漠景观。除了最大限度地减少对等候区的需求并提供逃生通道外，医院的设计还强调了人员流动。在新冠疫情期间，医院的一些部门被用作Covid-19隔离和治疗区，因为能够将病人分流至指定的区域，医院可以轻松地收治Covid-19病人和非Covid-19病人。

Construction costs for many building types are extremely high; for instance, general hospital construction in California can approach $700 per square foot, and even more. Redirecting the cost of waiting rooms to the cost of indoor-outdoor spaces with the capacity to provide areas of repose and micro-retail experiences would be a win-win for both patients and cost-conscious administrators. The lobby can be a virtual space, but co-locating physical restaurants, pharmacies, and retail with patient-care facilities is a way to recapture the time and space spent waiting.
Medical malls that separate the diagnostic outpatient functions of the hospital from inpatient areas provide opportunities for robust waiting experiences weaved in. At Jaber AL Ahmad Hospital, in Kuwait, a large, 30-meter-high atrium has multiple levels of experience and an emphasis on movement rather than sitting while waiting. When the local climate permits, the exterior of a hospital can help further decentralize activities. At Jaber Al Ahmad, designed by Langdon Wilson International, there is a distinct entry sequence that distributes incoming patients, staff and visitors to six different entry nodes. The decentralization of entry points creates less foot traffic and the ability for each tower to house its own waiting and entry sequences. Light towers accentuate areas of visitor arrival points at each level and views to the desert landscape. In addition to minimizing the need for waiting areas and providing escape, the hospital design uses these spaces as features to accentuate the movement of people in the facility. During the pandemic, sectors of the hospital have been utilized as Covid-19 quarantine and treatment areas due to the ability to circulate patients into areas designated for the infected with separate entries. This allows the facility to see both Covid and non-Covid patients easily.


Image Courtesy of Langdon Wilson International and Gulf Consult

就学校而言，可以从如何将多余的建筑或空地用于室外教室的角度，重新思考新冠疫情时代下的室内体验。大多数示范指南和疾病预防控制中心的建议都需要更多的建筑。对于家长、学生和学校管理部门来说，接送学生需要按年级定时接送。在一些学校，这些较长的等待时间已经成为家长互动或更新学校新闻的时刻。而将人们集中在同一区域等待会带来停车和安全方面的问题，因此当地的咖啡店或杂货店将有更多的机会。

等候系统需要融入每一种空间的运营理念和设计中，无论是在城市层面的楼宇之间的空间，还是候车室、学校接送点、家庭或工作场所。疫情迫使我们参与了一场身临其境的培训课程，去了解在虚拟环境下的工作方式。室内和室外环境之间的平衡关系和经济激励需要提供给开发商和消费者，确保这些混合空间的包容和成功。

我们现在生活在一个由应用程序驱动的世界，分散且便利。随之而来的也是巨大的机遇。通过对等待的新叙述，我们或许就能重塑一个由质量、安全和便捷驱动的可持续经济体系，而减少等候室的使用。

In the case of schools, the indoor experience during the Coronavirus era is being rethought from a perspective of how excess real estate or open spaces may be co-utilized for outdoor classrooms. Most model guidelines and the CDC’s recommendations require more real estate. For parents, students, and school administrations, the pick-up and drop-off scenarios require timed arrival of parents by grades. At some schools, those longer wait times have become moments of parent interaction or updates of school happenings. Whereas concentrating people waiting in the same area creates parking and safety challenges, the local coffee shop or grocery stores are retail opportunities for neighboring businesses.
Mobile wait-management systems need to be integrated into the operational ethos and the design of spaces at every scale, whether at the urban level of spaces in between buildings, waiting rooms, school pick-up lines, homes, or workplaces. The pandemic has thrust us into an immersive training session in how the virtual environment can and cannot work. A balanced relationship between indoor and outdoor environments and an economic incentive must be provided to both developers and consumers to ensure the inclusion and success of these hybrid spaces.
We’re living now in an apps-driven world of dispersal and convenience. With that comes great opportunity. Through a new narrative for our waiting, we may just be able to reshape a sustainable economy driven by quality, safety, and ease. No waiting rooms required.