The administrator of the Vacationers Hospital (VH) recognized the amount of traffic in the corridors. This prompted her to think about possible problems with the current layout. The core work of the patient care is performed in an area 3003 150 feet, as shown in Table EX 5.6.1.

All rooms (departments) measure 100 feet (length) by 50 feet (width). Walking distance from one department to another is completed by rectangular working patterns. Assuming that a trip originates from the center of a department and terminates at the center of an adjacent department, a person would walk 150 feet (25 feet from the center of the originating department to the hallway, 100 feet on the hallway to an adjacent department, and 25 feet from the hallway to the center of the adjacent department). The results of a six - month - long work sampling study analyzing the movement of VH patients and staff between the departments, averaged per month, are presented in a from - to chart, as shown in Table EX 5.6.2 .

A consultant informed the administrator that every 1,000 extra feet walked (by either patients or staff) cost $ 5.50 a month in terms of lost productivity (assuming flows and costs are symmetrical among departments). The objective is to minimize unnecessary walking by changing the location of each department on the basis of traffic data. To move a department costs $ 20,000 per room, except for lab/EKG, operating room, and x - ray, which cost $ 75,000 each.

a. Determine whether it would be worthwhile to change the layout of the hospital.
b. How many years would it take to recover the cost of layout changes?