Game Feedback and Suggestion

First of all, I love the game. The use of real life diseases are awesome especially for me who is a medical professional myself. But like all other games this game has its own set of flaws that needs to be improved for it to make it an even better game. So I will divide the issues I've found to high priority, medium priority and low priority. Also, if I am in the wrong section please move it to the right one. Thanks!

High Priority

1. Laboratories

The hospital/clinic should only operate under one laboratory and it should be under its own separate department which is usually the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and is usually headed by a pathologist. It is unrealistic to have 6 laboratories (one for each department) with more or less the same equipment. The laboratory technologists are also the one who should be the one collecting the more common body fluids such as blood, urine and stool while the more invasive sample collection (ex. spinal fluid analysis, peritoneal fluid analysis) must be conducted by the doctors on the diagnostic units or even more realistic at the operating room. I've tried modifying the examination.xml to move all the laboratory examinations to be conducted by the stat lab of the emergency department and make a half success. (The doctor's clinic of each department will collect the sample but I have to manually switch the patient to emergency department for it to be tested and upon receiving the result I have to switch it back again to its original department to be processed by the doctor. While doing this I conclude that the procedure script of laboratory tests is specifically telling the patient to go to its department's laboratory.)

2. Clinics

Since clinics are only operating during the day it should be under its own department  which is usually the Outpatient Department. This department will host the clinics of all other departments and will be the deciding factor whether the patient needs hospitalization or can be treated at home.

3. Emergency Department

Emergency clinics should be operating 24/7 alongside with the trauma centers. As of now, the trauma centers is the only one operating as such and unfortunately only caters those patients who is either brought in by ambulance or those patients who are hospitalized (usually those in observation room).

4. Medical Imaging Department

Each department in the game right now needs to have its own sonography unit, cardiography unit and neurology exam unit which is like the laboratories is unrealistic. These units should be moved under the radiology department and renamed to Medical Imaging Department because not all of them are using radioactive chemicals. This department must be headed by a radiologist. (By the way, I've also tried moving these examinations to a single sonography unit and cardiography unit but failed to do so probably because of the procedure script as well.)

5. Pharmacy and Hospital Kitchen

The game doesn't have a pharmacy department/unit. This seems to be problematic especially to the hospitalized patient. Where do they get their medications and food? The nurse seems magically pooping the medicines and foods that they are delivering to those patients. And speaking of nurses delivering foods and medicines, shouldn't they be moving those carts on the nurses station to the rooms of the patients? (I think the devs don't have the animation for this one.)

6. Surgery Department

I don't know to you guys but having 5 operating rooms (one for each department) seems to be overly unrealistic. I know that each surgery needs to have someone who specializes on each disciplines for it to be carried out but that should stop there. Watch Grey's Anatomy and you'll see what I am talking about   . The surgical procedures must be conducted only under the Surgery Department who will be employing the different types of surgeons and anesthesiologists. And in my personal opinion, this department should be the last one to be unlocked because it requires a significant amount of investments in terms of manpower and equipments.

7. Hospitalized patients not fully treated

When a patient is hospitalized the main purposes must be to be treated to make them feel better after they leave the hospital but that seems not to be the case on this game. I've found that the patients are leaving with majority of their symptoms not treated. The main diagnosis of the patient is treated but the symptoms are not and I've found it to be odd because shouldn't be the patient must be fully treated before he/she is allowed to leave? ( I don't know if this is a bug, if it does I hope that it be addressed soon.)

Medium Priority
1.  Schedules

I know everyone is excited to go home after a long day of work in the hospital but that doesn't mean that the nurses, doctors and technologists should not be leaving their duties until their shift partner shows up. It is annoying to see that a patient is dying in the trauma center and the nurses and doctor is leaving just to catch up The Good Doctor (Mondays 10/9c) . Please at least make their work shifts overlapping or if not possible make the duties of nurses and doctors different on the other so that  the hospital will have personnel on it on every single time.

2. Janitors

The janitors on this game are so good at their jobs that even during a surgical procedure they will mop the floor clean. Also I don't know if they are motivated to mop even more by seeing a half naked patient during the physical examination on the doctor's clinic. If this happens in real life, I wanted to be a janitor.

3. Zoom level

I wish I could zoom the camera a little bit more. I love seeing the details when the doctor is performing a procedure.

4. Visitors

No man is an island. And this is also applied to the patients especially to hospitalized patients. They are already in a bad position and it would make sense if they have something to lean on on these difficult times like their families and friends.

5. Morgues

If a patient dies I hope that they won't be cremated instantly. I wish that someone would move their bodies to the morgue so that their grieving families can see it for the last time and after that it can be picked up by the hearse.

6. UI

I know that the devs are already addressing this issue but I put it on the medium priority because I believe this is a lesser pressing issue compared to the high priority ones due to the fact that in order to make this game even more better the gameplay (which I believe is the core reason why this game is so good) needs to be addressed first. And besides you'll get used to it (the microscopic texts) as the time goes by.

Low Priority
1. Hospital bills

I wish I could see how much each patient is paying while on my hospital. (Perhaps, the devs can add this on the patient card?)

2. Utility bills

The hospital must be paying their utility bills (ex. electric bills, water bills, internet bills, phone bills). So stop tapping on others water line!

3. Change "ward" to "room"

Ward is also known as department (ex. Surgery Ward = Surgery Department). In the game, the term "ward" is used on specifying a room (regular ward) which in fact must be changed to "Regular Room" because if you use the term "ward" it will literally translate to department within a department.

4. Restroom

I hate seeing my janitors barging on the patient room while he is sleeping just to use his rest room. The restrooms should be rooms specific. For example, the patient/patients occupying my HDU room will be the only ones using the restroom I build inside that room.

5.  Events

Events must be randomly triggered just like in real life and not when the player wants it to happen. This will add more realism and challenge to the game. (Of course, you still need to unlock hospitalization on all departments.)

6. Administrative department

It would be nice to have this just like in real life hospitals. This department is pretty self explanatory.



That's it for now. I will edit this post after playing more. My patients are waiting for me.  

I agree with just about all of your high priority items. For me personally, the labs and imaging are the two biggest priorities in making hospital wide. With regards to the ORs, I hear what you're saying and to a point I agree. It would be nice to have surgical teams use whatever OR is available simply because it sucks having people die because both of my cardiothoracic ORs are in use and people are still getting knee surgeries done (when I have extra CT surgeons there). That being said, requiring each department to have one isn't ALL bad, simply because, for me, a full hospital with all departments keeps my ORs full all day long and I have two for each department.

With regards to wards vs rooms, from contextual clues in the rest of your post it sounds like you, like myself, are in the US where we don't use this terminology anymore as we've transitioned largely from the use of wards to rooms. This is a game that comes out of Europe where wards might still be more popular in many places! Remember that a big part of our transition to private rooms is due to HIPAA. When I built my first few hospitals, I carried this private room idea through my building, but I've found it much more effective to build it like a ward instead of a room! If you make a big long stretch of the IM ward, for example, you can put multiple beds in one section (even if you make them internally private then!). This actually works out pretty well, because you don't really NEED all of the extra equipment in every single room (I.e. the defib and the CRP scanner, etc.). Just a suggestion to try!