All the facilities at Dix are outdated.
- The facilities are inefficient and not therapeutic.
Space, not patient acuity, drives staffing at Dix.
- Poor configuration requires much higher patient-to-staff ratio than would
be needed with a proper configuration.
- On all units, staff in the glass-enclosed nursing stations cannot hear
what is going on in the ward or communicate verbally with patients.
Ward configurations at Dix prohibit patients having normal
patterns of living in at least two areas—going outside on a regular
basis and visiting with family and friend
- Most units are multi-story, requiring use of elevators and stairs to
reach the ground floor.
- Few outdoor areas designated for patient use.
- Visitors’ access to patients is complicated and inconvenient.
Some units at Dix provide a high level of therapeutic activity;
others provide little.
- The Clinical Research Unit provides cutting-edge, state-of-the-art intensive
therapeutic activity.
- Other units appear to provide very little or no intensive therapeutic
activities.
Dix staff is not always deployed in a manner that provides
intensive therapeutic activity during the entire week.
- Rehabilitation services staff members work on weekday evenings, but not
on weekends.
During the last year, family members and citizens donated more
than 80,000 hours of volunteer service to Dix.
- Projects included cemetery restoration, health career fair, pet therapy
circus and performing arts series.
Dix lacks adequate technology.
- Only 38 percent of the hospital’s computers are connected to its
local area network (LAN).
- The LAN does not include computers in most direct care areas.
- Many computers have outdated 386 processors and are not suited to current
software.
- Many staff members who need voice mail do not have it because the state
system the hospital is required to use charges $7 per month per telephone.
At Dix, the responsibility for staff development is split between
nursing and educational support services.
- Nursing is responsible for health care technicians, while educational
support services maintains all other areas. Dividing staff development
opportunities between two organizational units may hinder training staff
to provide intensive therapeutic activity.
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