Date: Sat, 27 Feb 1999 19:41:50 -0600 THEME HOSPITAL ================================================================================ ================ By Andy Townsend(???) ================================================================================ ================ HOSPITAL CURES: Running a hospital isn't as you might belive.When patients aren't literally dying to be seen,they're puking in the corridors.To make your management tasks a bit easier,I've come up with plenty of pointers to ensure success. IN THE BEGINNING... You can't very well build a compitive hospital if your'e rushed.The facility will be run by quacks,and the patients will drop like flies.The first and most important thing to do at the beginning of the level is press [L1] to set the speed to the slowest possible pace.This will give you as much time as you want to get the layout right.You'll then open at approximately the halfway stage,giving you a jump start against the opposition. Once the hospital is built,hire two receptionists with desks.While this may not appear to be absolutely essential at the start,as the queue of people builds up,it gets harder to cope with just one receptionist-ther might not even be enough room in the lobby for another desk. Also,it's always good to have two GP offices in the beginning-as the volume of patients increases,you'll want another GP near the enterance.If you started with only one,you won't have enough space left for another when needed. Next,take 20% of the research funds out of specialization and put it in diagnosis,because you need specialization only you've found a disease that you don't know how to cure.However,in true catch-22 fashion,you won't be able to find many incurable diseases if the diagnosis equipment isn't good enough. TIP:Build as many rooms as possible in the beginning so that you get the best position early on-you don't always think straight with a full hospital.You may need a loan,but don't worry-as long as you don't go too far into debt,you'll survive. You'll want to hire a lot of doctors and nurses at the beginning,too,so that you can cope with the patient increase.Althugh it's generally better to increase staff at the same percentage rate as the patients increase,it can be pretty tough-you have to be particu;arly wary of increases because when they happen slowly,they can deceve you into thinking that there's no trouble.By hiring plenty of staff in the first place,by the time you're near the breaking point and wildly in debt the hospital starts making money and bails you out just in the nick of time.However,this stragity isn't nearly as successful in the later levels. It's always best to build your most-used rooms toward the front of your hospital so that patients will be able to check in and then be diagnosed right away.You should also put the GP's office,toilets,and pharmacy in the same vincity because they're the most commonly used rooms,especially in freak epidemics. Place an accessory in every room,except for plants-they take extra time to look after.For example,put a computer in a reasearch room,and a skeleton and bookcase in a traning room. TIP:When building an operating theater,always have your surgions ready before you build the room. Build a traning room and train doctors while the hospital is quiet-trained doctors are cheaper than the ones bought at the same skill level.You'll definitaly want to ues a good consulant for the traning.He'll pass on his skills to his pupils,but only if they learn them before becoming consulants-it's not possible to train consulants in new skills. Make sure you have enough surgeons-use four if you have one operating theater.Have plenty of benches and drink machines in busy areas. NOTE:A drink machine pays for itself when its used 25 times. Research definatly helps on the larger levels.Build a research room early on,with enough space for later additions.Also,always have more than one researcher in your reasearch room-this speeds up the research considerably. In a really busy hospital,queues can get quite large,so set your queue size for each room betweeen six and eight.You should avoid queues larger than that because large queues make patients who are sick wait longer.When that happens,they'll die or become disgusted and leave (either way,it ain't pretty) If a patient is sick and close to dying,either take a chance on a possible cure or send him home.Whatever you do,don't let him die on the hospital grounds.It's better to send away a potential patient than to have him die and scare off dozen others In any room with equipment that can be damaged,always have an extinguisher.They're lifesavers after an earthquake or equipment overuse,especially when you're off tending a buiser part of the hospital.Never let the Damage bar drop down past the one-quater mark or start to smoke-it can cause problems to your machine and equipment.If somthing blows up in a room,it'll kill all the occupants,and you won't be able to delete or edit the room TIP:Put two or more extinguishers in a room to cut the risk of explosions The size of your staff room and research room should should always be 8x8.If you have a big staff or a lot of researchers,there'll be plenty of room for them to move around with ease.Also,this leaves room to place computers or an atom analyszer when you get them(or if you already have them) When buying new lots,always buy the closest and biggest one first-it'll hold more new buildings.The smaller rooms are good as less-used rooms that don't need much attention,such as the traning room or research room MANAGING YOUR STAFF: Be on the lookout for better staff,and don't hesitate to replace existing staff by hiring new,better workers.Your old staff won't hold grudges,sue for wrongful termanation,or become crazed,gun-wielding wackos. Tired employees make for an unprofitable hospital.However,you can do a number of things to reduce this. *Use large rooms with all the accessories.This will stop the staff from getting demoralized, and they won't tire as quickly. *Block off unused parts of the building with benches to prevent handymen from wandering around them and getting cold-they'll become demoralized and want pay raises.Consider blocking an area with a facility,such as a staff room or toilet,if you aren't allowed to block an area off with benches. *Place large staff rooms at either end of hospital so that your employees have the shortest tire time possible.Have a pool table,TV,and video game when they're available-they help increasse the speed of recuperation. *Manually take any staff out of a room when they aren't doing anything.Not only will they tire less quickly,they'll immediately go to any room in witch they're needed.Send personnel to the staff room when they reach 40% tiredness. Being overstaffed is alwaysbetter than being understaffed.However,don't just hire a bunch of quacks so that you have enough staff. TIP:If your staff starts to get low on morale,a bonus is a great and surefire way to perk them back up (gust like in real life). Always have at least three handymen running around your hospital,cleaning and watering plants. More is better. When building your tranining room,put in a bookcase and skeleton to speed up the traning.The same rule applies to the psychiatrist's room.Make sure you have a computer and atom analyser in your reasharch room.This speeds up the time it takes to make improvements. HANDLING EMERGENCIES: The first thing to do when you have an emergency is see how many people there are and what treatment will be needed.If you have one of each treatment,you'll be able to cure six to eight people at the pharmacy (or at a basic place such as the slack-tongue clinic),six people at the psychiatrist,and up to four people at the operating theater.If the number of emergency pateints exceeds this capacity,you have two options:you can refuse to treat them,or you can send a certain number of them home.You'll still get credit for the ones you treated,and if no one dies on the hospital grounds,you'll still get bonus funds at the end of the year for not killing anyone. If the treatment room is close to the helipad,you can increase the number of patients you can treat,but if it is farther away,you should reduce the number.Also,the better your doctor or nurse is,the quicker they'll be.After a while,you should be a good gudge of what you can or cannot handle. When an emergency requires you to remove two spare ribs from two different people,always have more than the required surgeons (at least three or four because your surgeons might be off doing other business when the emergency hits). Avoid handling emergencies when you're bogged down with a busy hospital.If you fail,Your reputation is dented,and you lose that potential cash bonus. COPING WITH AN EPIDEMIC: There are two main ways to handle an epidemic-the first way may not win you any points with the department of health,but it works fairly soundly,especially if you're running low on cash. *Set the speed of the game on [L1] as soon as there's word of an epidemic.You can see what it is and then try a cover-up.Scan the entire hospital and send home anyone who has the contagious disease.Then,all you can do is pray.While this stragtegy doesn't always work,it works often enough to make it worthwhile. NOTE:Killing rats decreases the number of epidemics. *If worse comes to worst,you could try to cure the epidemic patients.If you have the available machines to do it,this strategy works quite well (granted that you have an efficiently run hospital and the available staff). One other method (a cheat really) is to find out what the disease is when you have an epidemic,and then reload a saved game and kick everyone with the disease out.Because the emergencies that arise are set inhto the level files,you'll get the same disease.However,because no one in your hospital has it,you won't need to cure anyone (and you'll receive compensation). MAINTAINING MACHINES: Regularly page handymen to maintain your machines.Leave a gap of five or six between Strength and Times before you have the machine maintained.Whenever there's an eartquake warning,check all the machines to make sure they aren't close to the end-an earthquake can add up to six uses onto a machine,which may destroy it.In an emergency,replace the machine,just to be safe. RATS!!! There are two ways to deal with rats.First,you can simply ignore them and let them go about their business.They should have little effect on your reputation.Second,you can kill as many as you can,witch will give you a chance at winning that rat prize and going to the secret level.If you chose this second method,predd [L1] as soon as you see a rat so that they are easy to hit.If you've killed them indoors,put a handyman over their dead bodies so that people don't throw up when they see their festering carcasses.As mentiond earlier,there's some incentive to killing rats-it seems to reduce the number of epidemics. FAMOUS PEOPLE: Whenever someone famous wants to visit,always let them,unless you're doing absolutely pitful. It's very hard not to get their approval-you'll usually be given a cash grant.When they come,you at least get money and a rep boost.VIPs always look for cleanliness,radiators (heat),fire extinguishers,how nice your hospital looks,how happy your and patients are,and how advanced your equipment is.If you shrug off VIPs too often,they'll show up unexpectedly,which is not a good thing,especially during a vomit wave or when you're in a slump. MISCELLANY: Keep in mind that patients will pay you in one of two ways.You get paid either by the patient directly or by the patient's insurance company.If the patient pays directly,the charge will be credited to your balance and appear on your statement immediatly.If the patient uses an insurance company,the insurers will not pay you immediatly.Although the insurance payment will show up as money Money Earned on the casebook screen,it will not appear on your balance or your statement until the insurance company finally pays up. Litter bombs are very expensive-$5,000 isn't chump change after all (you could buy two rooms with that amount).So,if you choose to buy them,make sure that you don't waste them on a poorly planned idea.It's also best to buy only one at a time,unless you have plenty of money. ================================================================================ ================ Some of this stuff isn't on the PlayStation version of Theme-Hospital,but,who needs a liter bomb anyway. Also,this is my first FAQ ever to rite!!!Oh,and one more thing,does anybody know my E-mail address :???@?????????.???:...Ahh,I got you BIG TIME!!! ================================================================================ ================