XTE Medical Center

The XTE Medical Center is an extremely large health complex in Angel Beats! A Step Closer. Funded by the XTE Foundation and the Japanese Government, the Medical Center was established close to a large metropolitan area, serving thousands of people with the goal of revolutionizing health care through providing high-quality care while making it affordable.

History
Following the founding of the XTE Foundation in early 19th century, there was an issue of build-ups in regards to citizens accessing health care. More often than not, citizens would often go to the hospital for minor issues, which would cause those who did need health care to be delayed enough that some would have to go to a different facility in order to be housed and treated. Alongside the aforementioned issues, the trend of the decreasing Japanese population has slowly recovered, instead increasing at a slow but steady rate.

With all the combined factors, hospitals across the country (with exception to more rural locations) often found themselves near-capacity. While there wasn't any immediate emergencies concerning bed space or occupancy, it rose a question as to whether or not the current health care system will tolerate a large-scale event. A solution arose to relieve hospitals and to start a pilot program by building a large health complex which is supposed to be a one-and-done solution. Construction began around 2003 and was finished with delays in 2006 and was finished in 2007 for full operation, with more subsequent buildings planned for construction.

Construction didn't occur without drawbacks. Even though permits were relatively easy to acquire due to the influence of the XTE Foundation, weather issues along with citizens who lived in the area not agreeing with the construction often made it difficult. The appearance of a typhoon caused an unknown amount of damage to parts of the already-built structure, delaying it's construction by about a year.

Planning
The medical center was designed to have the future in mind: modularity and compatibility. Often times, there are very large spaces within the hospital that go unused for long periods of time.

Due to the Medical Center being two major hospitals and housing smaller specialized facilities, an area that expanded beyond a parking structure was necessary in order to facilitate and manage possible increases in traffic, housing of staff, and parked cars. Multiple parking structures and wide roads with approved traffic lights were created, with separate roads that were gated off dedicated for ambulance entry and exit.

Simulations to test possible influxes of a large amount of people showed promising results, however an actual incident has yet to occur to truly test what would happen in a real-world scenario.

Function
The XTE Medical Center is considered to be a one-and-done solution, meant to solve nearly all medical-related issues which can range from simple to complex issues. Some specializations include pediatrics, trauma, and long-term treatment. There are plans to include a psychiatric facility, but there have been concerns by various members of the public and the staff, causing temporary delays in planning.

Departments
The following below may or may not include some departments that operate internally for multiple reasons.


 * XTE Medical Center
 * Medical Records
 * Release of Information
 * Information Technology
 * Security
 * Clinical Engineering
 * Facilities, Planning, and Design Management
 * Dining
 * Physical Plant Management
 * Billing
 * Non-Affiliated
 * Police Department

Unknown

 * Shizuka Tatenashi

Cardiology

 * Yuzuru Otonashi (formerly)

Controversy and Criticisms
The XTE Medical Center has been met with various controversies and criticisms during and after construction.

Biohazard Control
As the XTE Medical Center is composed of two large hospital buildings, various employees and health officials have voiced concerns of an infection spreading rapidly in the hospital, as there could be a large amount of people within a hospital at the time and it would effectively shut down operations of both buildings and leave potentially tens of thousands of residents without access.

The administration of the medical center had commented against these controversies, stating that sanitization and testing procedures are rigorous and that each building has their own isolated procedures and mechanisms. Various examples include having separate ventilation systems with state-of-the-art filtration, separate water systems, having teams dedicated for sanitization, and proper procedures of handling patients.

Budget
Although not a common topic, the budget that the XTE Medical Center consumes has been discussed by the upper-echelon of the XTE Foundation, stating that it is way above what they specify. While given a very large budget provided by both the Japanese Government and the XTE Foundation, the XTE Medical Center often exceeds the budget in various amounts, which is largely attributed to staffing costs.

Various providers of care as well as residents believe that the Medical Center should receive more allocated budget, given the goal is to provide easy access to healthcare while at the same time providing high-quality healthcare. Statistics prove that a significant portion of the Greater Tokyo Area utilize the XTE Medical Center for their medical needs compared to other hospitals and clinics. Some people also believe that since the Medical Center provides higher quality care, it will allow other medical centers to increase competency in care while making their care much more affordable.