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Building ‘Healthy’ Hospitals
We are facing a time-shift in the design of modern hospitals,
in all parts of the world
Henning Lensch |
The field of healthcare designs is currently undergoing an
exciting transformation that will significantly change the appearance of our
hospitals. More and more healthcare administrators and medical professionals
are becoming aware of the need to create healing environment that supports the
needs of patients, family and staff. The key factor motivating this awareness
is the growing scientific evidence that the physical environment in which medical
care is provided has an impact on health and well being.
We are facing a time-shift in the design of modern hospitals, in all parts of
the world. Hospital management and design teams of architects and engineers
have to consider short-term circumstances such as the rapidly changing technical
aspects of medical treatments; and long-term building parameters-providing space
and flexibility for future upgrades, improvements, and adaptations of the existing
facility to future requirements which cannot be anticipated only a few years
earlier when any new hospital is being planned. Hospitals are designed for future
expansion, as well as for short and long-term changes inside the hospital.
New Conditioning Ways
 The
General Hospital Forchheim ,as well as the new expansion of the Psychiatric
Hospital Mainkofen, both at Bavaria in Germany, have an important feature for
the well being of patients and staff successfully implemented: either cooling
or heating water running through concrete elements of the house (floor and wall
constructions). Two main aspects have to be put into consideration here: the
usage of ground-water for cooling in the summer, as well as the additional benefit
of using it for heating in the winter. The well-being of the patients and staff
through the holistic conditioning system (compared with traditional air-conditioning
systems) is proven.
Holistic Engineering Concepts
Our understanding of planning means considering all work phases and trades (no
singular planning of electrical, sanitary and other), live phases of buildings
(usage-efficiency not only low building costs), and kinds of resources (economical,
ecological und human resources). Result of this holistic planning process is
an efficient building that fulfills the economic, ecologic and human demands
of the owner and user. The benefits of holistic engineering are that it serves
human beings, the healing environment provides comfort, saves money, lifecycle
costs are optimised. It also saves resources and processes become effective
by holistic approach.
Holistic systems also include saving energy and providing
comfort for ventilation and cooling by smart systems such as appropriate insulation
of buildings, reduction of ventilation by static cooling, source ventilation,
core activation for heating and cooling, adequate project management, holistic
approach at the conceptional stage, providing appropriate solutions (no technical
monuments), facility management starting from the beginning, design of all areas
of expertise (synergy), stringent design with fixed dates and workflows, sufficient
supervision of start-up, and frequent process control.
| One elementary and rather easy decision to be made
in the beginning of a hospital project is the right choice of land - the
site must have sufficient space for expansions in the future. This is the
so-called macro-expansion. The micro-expansion in a hospital is in the same
way important - to leave space for increased space e.g. examination and
treatment (e.g. implementation of a new centre for MRI, CT or other diagnostic
departments). The micro-expansion areas could be courtyards or also spaces
left for further use, inside a building. |
Evidence-based Design
Lessons learned in architectural and especially hospital design is often misunderstood
as Evidence-based design (EBD). However, one element of EBD could be the scientific
examination of documented lessons learned. Evidence-based design is the natural
parallel and analogue to evidence-based medicine. An evidence-based designer,
together with an informed client, makes decisions based on the best information
available from research and project evaluations. Critical thinking is required
to develop an appropriate solution to the design problem; the pool of information
will rarely offer a precise fit with a client's unique situation. In the last
analysis, though, EBD should result in demonstrated improvements in the organisation's
clinical outcomes, economic, performance, productivity, costumer satisfaction
and cultural measurs. This is a method applicable to many types of building
projects, but is currently being used in the healthcare industry to help convince
decision-makers to invest the time and money to build better buildings, and
realise strategic business advantages as a result. Approximately 600 credible
studies with specific environmental relevance have been identified by The Center
for Health Design in Texas, US, in these areas, and many more applicable research
citations are in other branches of the literature.
The writer is Architect RRP Architecten Munich Germany
Email: h.lensch@rrp.de
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