Hospitals encompass an intricate infrastructure with a broad collection of practical units of medical forces. A fine planned facility layout planning is necessary for the smooth performance, in addition, to affording protected and suitable services to patients at the exact point in time. The paper proposed an optimized new facility unidirectional circular pathway of patient movement for achieving better health outcomes. The proposed layout would effectively avoid face-to-face contact of arriving and leaving patients inside a hospital, thus maintaining social distancing to avoid the spread of diseases or infection and hurry up the service deliverance method. A qualitative study was conducted for observing various movements of patients and health service providers inside existing hospital layouts, and semi-structural interviews were conducted to identify various issues of the existing infrastructural layouts inside hospital settings. The performance metrics considered included time, the distance between patients at various interaction points, and the capacity of rooms. The proposed layout was compared with the spring layout and random layout to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed system. This circular design proves to be an extremely suggested design to ensure social distancing in a pandemic or during the spread of infectious diseases.

1. Advani, S. D., & Fakih, M. G. (2019). The evolution of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI): Is it time for more inclusive metrics? Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 40(6), 681–685. https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2019.43
2. Benitez, G. B., Da Silveira, G. J., & Fogliatto, F. S. (2019). Layout planning in healthcare facilities: A systematic review. HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal, 12(3), 31–44. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1937586719855336
3. Chaeibakhsh, S., Novin, R. S., Hermans, T., Merryweather, A., & Kuntz, A. (2021). Optimizing hospital room layout to reduce the risk of patient falls. https://arxiv.org/abs/2101.03210
4. Chraibi, A., Osman, I. H., & Kharraja, S. (2019). Adaptive layout for operating theatre in hospitals: Different mathematical models for optimal layouts. Annals of Operations Research, 272(1–2), 493–527. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-018-2799-x
5. Di Sarno, L., Magliulo, G., D'Angela, D., & Cosenza, E. (2019). Experimental assessment of the seismic performance of hospital cabinets using shake table testing. Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics, 48(1), 103– 123. https://doi.org/10.1002/eqe.3127
6. Ellsworth, M., Chang, M., & Ostrosky - Zeichner, L. (2020). Mind the gap: the hospital breakroom. American Journal of Infection Control, 48(10), 1285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2020.06.179
7. Greene, M. T., Gilmartin, H. M., & Saint, S. (2020). Psychological safety and infection prevention practices: Results from a national survey. American Journal of Infection Control, 48(1), 2–6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2019.09.027
8. Gupta, R., Venkaiah, V., & Ammani, P. (2016). Need-based segmentation of airport passengers: The case of Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad. Indian Journal of Marketing, 46(3), 7–21. https://doi.org/10.17010/ijom/2016/v46/i3/88988
9. Keller, S. C., Pau, S., Salinas, A. B., Oladapo-Shittu, O., Cosgrove, S. E., Lewis-Cherry, R., ... & Sick-Samuels, A. C. (2021). Barriers to physical distancing among healthcare workers on an academic hospital unit during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 1– 7. https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2021.154
10. Krishnamoorthy, V., Karthikeyan, P., & Prakash, N. (2016). An examination of the relationship between service quality and patients' satisfaction in the hospital industry. Indian Journal of Marketing, 46(11), 21–35. https://doi.org/10.17010/ijom/2016/v46/i11/104732
11. Lather, J. I., Logan, T., Renner, K., & Messner, J. I. (2020). Implementation and evaluation of generative layout options using the graph-theoretical approach for a hospital layout problem. Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, 34(4), 04020014. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CP.1943-5487.0000893
12. Li, Y., Zhang, Y., & Cao, L. (2020). Evaluation and selection of hospital layout based on an integrated simulation method. In, 2020 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC), 2560–2568. IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/WSC48552.2020.9384091
13. Meddings, J., Manojlovich, M., Fowler, K. E., Ameling, J. M., Greene, L., Collier, S., & Saint, S. (2019). A tiered approach for preventing catheter-associated urinary tract infection. Annals of Internal Medicine, 171(7_Supplement), S30– S37. https://doi.org/10.7326/M18-3471
14. Parsia, Y., & Tamyez, P. F. (2018). Role of healthcare-facilities layout design, healing architecture, on quality of services. International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology, 9(4), 59–601. http://www.iaeme.com/ijciet/issues.asp?JType=IJCIET&VType=9&IType=4
15. Pillai, S. V. (2021). A novel uni-directional flow circular facility layout for effective social distancing. Vision: The Journal of Business Perspective. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0972262920984855
16. Prato, L., Lindley, L., Boyles, M., Robinson, L., & Abley, C. (2019). Empowerment, environment and person-centered care: A qualitative study exploring the hospital experience for adults with cognitive impairment. Dementia, 18(7–8), 2710–2730. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1471301218755878
17. Singh, A., Tewari, E., & Ravi, P. (2020). SERVQUAL (service quality) vs. NPS (net promoter score): A comparative study of private and public hospitals in Sikkim. Indian Journal of Marketing, 50(10– 11), 23– 39. https://doi.org/10.17010/ijom/2020/v50/i10-11/155840
18. Tiwari, S., & Bhagat, D. (2021). Moderating effect of emotional intelligence on occupational stress and burnout of health care professionals. Prabandhan: Indian Journal of Management, 14(4), 39–54. https://doi.org/10.17010/pijom/2021/v14i4/158724
19. Wolf, A., Moore, L., Lydahl, D., Naldemirci, Ö., Elam, M., & Britten, N. (2017). The realities of partnership in person-centered care: A qualitative interview study with patients and professionals. BMJ Open, 7(7), e016491. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-016491