Theme Hospital/Rooms

There are a total of 23 rooms in Theme Hospital, each with their own purpose. Read below for a description of what each one's for, and who you need to work there.

By clicking a room's door, you open its information screen, which will let you handle the queues in that room.
 * You can move people to the back of the queue by dragging and dropping them on the arrow sign.
 * You can reduce the maximum queue size to balance queues between similar rooms. Setting the queue size to zero will turn the room off if you don't want anyone (a member of staff or a patient) visiting it.
 * You can drag people from the queue to another similar room if one room has a longer queue than the other. This can be very useful in emergencies.

Outline
Once you've selected the room you want to build from the menu, drag the outline to the size and position you want. Each room has a minimum size, and the outline will turn blue once it's large enough to fit all the essential equipment for its function - but often it's better to make it a bit bigger than the game's recommendation, just so you have room to put things where you want. Larger rooms also make staff happier to work in them.

When you've got it the size you want, click the tick button on the build window and you'll then be required to place the doors and windows.

Doors and windows
Click once to place the door, and again to place as many windows as you like. Neither doors nor windows can be placed along the building's exterior walls, and they can't be placed too close to the corner of the room. The only exceptions are the Ward and Operating Room, which have large swinging doors three squares wide.

So that it is easier to place the equipment in the room, it is often a good idea to place the door as close to the corner as possible, though. Also pay attention to where you can place chairs in the corridor and from what direction your patients will be coming from. It is a good idea to place as many windows as possible as they make staff happier - and makes it easier to place or edit the furniture in the room.

Click the tick button on the build window to add furniture and equipment to the room.

Adding furniture
Adding furniture to a room is more or less the same as adding windows; click where you want to place the item, and the next one in the list will automatically appear under your cursor to be placed in the room. If a piece of furniture or equipment doesn't fit where you've got your cursor, it will be greyed out.

Additional furniture items can be added by clicking the cash register button, which brings up a list of all the items you can buy. Certain things, like fire extinguishers, radiators, or bins can be selected for any room, but won't appear in the default equipment - you've got to add them to the list manually.

Click the tick button on the build window once you've positioned everything to finish the room building process and open it for use by staff and patients.

Editing complete rooms
Once you have built a room, you can still edit it in many ways depending on what you need. You can add items, move a room, resize it, or delete it.

You can add fire extenguishers, plants and radiators just like you'd add them in the corridor. The staff an patients don't have to leave the room while you add these things. You can also remove them by right-clicking on them.

If you want to add other items or do other editing, click on the question mark button and then the room. The staff and patients will then have to leave the room and while they do that you can't performa any actions &emdash; or you can empty the room yourself before you start editing it. Once the editing screen opens, you can buy and add new items or move existing items to other places. If you click "Cancel" (X), you can then resize or move the room by dragging at the corners or sides. You can even drag a room to the opposite end of the hospital by first moving one corner and then the other. Moving a room to another place like this will cost you nothing. To delete a room, click cancel twice and confirm. You will get some of your money back.

GP's Office
When patients arrive, they are sent from the reception to GP's Office for diagnosis. If diagnosis fails, the patient will be sent for further examination and will then return to GP's Office. Because of this, the GP's office the most important room in the hospital. One strategy is to occupy the room with a consultant who will most of the time get the diagnosis right during the first visit. Patients will be cured more quickly and less burden is placed on diagnosis rooms.

Requires 1 Doctor but no maintenance. Minimum size is 4 by 4 squares.


 * Doctor movement: File cabinet → desk → file cabinet
 * Patient movement: In → seat → out

General Diagnosis
A more advanced diagnosis room. If the GP's Office can't diagnose something, the patient is sent here. Requires any doctor. Minimum size is 5 by 5 squares.


 * Patient movement: In → behind the screen → in front of the crash trolley → behind the screen → out

Cardiogram
Machine used for diagnosis. Quite effective. It requires maintenance by a handyman and a doctor.
 * Doctor movement: Stands by the treadmill
 * Patient movement: In → behind the screen → on the treadmill → behind the screen → out

Scanner
The Scanner can diagnose almost every disease in the game. Requires maintenance and a doctor.

Ultrascan
An expensive machine but one which is very effective at diagnosing diseases and also costs the patient a lot. Requires maintenance and a doctor

Blood Machine
Takes blood samples for diagnosis. Has a wide range of diseases it can diagnose. Expensive to buy. Requires maintenance and a doctor.

X-Ray
X-Rays the patient as part of the diagnosis procudure. Costs the patient a lot but takes a lot of room in the hospital. Requires maintenance and a doctor.
 * Doctor movement: Enters the console from the open side
 * Patient movement: Enters the X-ray machine from the open side of the console.

Pharmacy
Another curing room. Medicine is distributed to patients by a nurse. Minimum size 4 by 4 squares.


 * Patient movement: Patient stands to the left (if cabinet is facing SW) or to the right (if facing SE) of the medicine cabinet.

Psychiatric
A curing and a diagnosis room. Here people can be cured of some conditions by being talked out of it. More Skeletons and Bookcases help speed things up. It requires 1 doctor qualified to work as a psychiatrist.


 * Doctor movement: Bookcase (if there is one) → chair
 * Patient movement: In → couch → out

Ward
Also a Diagnosis room, where a nurse monitors a patient and a place for people who are having/have had surgery to stay. Requires a Nurse.

Operating Theater
People go here to have surgery. Requires two Doctors qualified as Surgeons.


 * Doctor movement: When doctors come in or go out, they change their clothes behind the screen. Before operating, they also wash their hands by the sink.
 * Patient movement: In → behind the screen → on the operating table → behind the screen → out

Inflation
Place where Bloaty Head is cured. Quite funny to watch as it is burst and then re-inflated. Requires a Doctor and Maintenance. Minimum size is 4 by 4 squares.


 * Doctor movement: Pops the inflated head on the opposite side to the gaz bottle → in front of the gaz bottle → inflates the head in front of the patient
 * Patient movement: Enters the machine through the side that is opposite to the gaz bottle.

DNA Fixer
For Alien DNA. Requires a Doctor.

Hair Restoration
For Baldness. Requires a Doctor and Maintenance.

Slack Tongue Clinic
For, you guessed it, Slack Tongue. Requires a Doctor and Maintenance.


 * Doctor movement: Doctor stays on the side of the handle while operating.
 * Patient movement: In → in front of the machine → out

Fracture Clinic
For Fractured Bones. Requires a Nurse and Maintenance.

Electrolysis
For Hairyitis. Requires a Doctor and Maintenance.

Jelly Vat
For Jellyitis. Requires a Doctor and Maintenance.

Decontamination
For Radioactivity. Requires a Doctor and Maintenance.

Staff Room
Staff Rest Room. Helps keep your staff at their best. Resting your staff here results in fewer mistakes,demands for pay decreases and keeps them happy.

Research Department
Here is where you discover new cures,rooms etc. for your hospital. It requires at least one researcher, but two or three will help you research faster.

Toilets
Self-explanatory. The more drinks machines you have the more of these your hospital should contain. Make sure you build these or else you'll see patients going home or wetting themselves.


 * Movement: Toilet → sink

Training
Trains up junior doctors. Having more bookcases and skeletons speeds the rate at which they are trained. Requires a doctor at consultant level.