Have You Considered These Medical Equipment Planning Basics?
Medical equipment planning and layout design are one of the trickiest parts within the hospital design process and as such demand a thorough consideration of all aspects.
Each clinical space is woven around how clinicians interact with the equipment and the patients. It takes into account the universal principles of infection control, general hygiene and ease of maintenance and cleaning. This is the common sense stuff with things like locating wash hand basins near the entrance to remind medical staff to wash hands before and after interacting with the patients.
Medical equipment, fittings and fixtures layout follows the work flow and must separate the “dirty” and “clean” zones.
Height of hospital equipment, shelving and layout should allow easy access to hospital staff of an average height. The same goes for all diagnostic units, which should be suitably adjustable to cater to all heights/sizes of patients.
While a great majority of medical equipment is easy to relocate through attached wheels, this is not the same for larger medical equipment units such as MRI’s, and CT scanners parts of which are bolted to the floor or wall. Access and egress are both important. So thought needs to be given not just to facilitate the initial arrival and installation of these large/oversize medical units before the last wall is built, but also how to remove the equipment when it needs servicing or decommissioning and replacement. It pays to consider if these big units can be dismantled into smaller modules and whether the equipment can pass through the corridor corners? Are any trolley options available? Is the door large enough to accommodate easy passage of these units? Does it need to go in a lift? If yes, are the service lifts large enough to cater to the size and weight?
Over and above the size/movement aspects of large hospital equipment, building structure is another aspect to consider well before the construction starts. The hospital X-ray unit, for example needs steel in the ceilings to provide the ceiling tracks on which the X-Ray head is mounted. Slab deflection and vibration requirements should be established with the equipment providers.
Continuing with the example of the X-Ray, the X-Ray table, the head on the gantry, the wall mounted bucky, the control console and the generator all need services and floor trunking dimensions and locations should be provided to the structural engineers to plan that before the concrete is poured. Otherwise cutting out the trunking will be an expensive and time consuming job. Worse still the steel mesh may not allow you to cut the floor as it will compromise the slab stability.
Special hospital equipment also gets installed in stages, such as the theatre pendant and lights; the suppliers normally issue the steel plate at the construction stage which should be bolted to the concrete ceiling. The rest of the services and pendant is built just before the false ceiling goes up. For security reasons, the doors and locks should be installed to the rooms but decoration outstanding otherwise the builder may have to go back in to touch up and fix any scratches and broken items.
Likewise most advanced lasers and radiation equipment require interlocking doors as a safety measure, which is automatically turned on before switching on the said units, in addition to the warning lights outside the room.
The above discussion caters to the basic requirements only, should you desire to protect your huge investment in an upcoming hospital project it is a must that you have an experienced design manager on board while appointing the lead architects.
About the Author:
Harry McQue is a hospital design manager with three masters degrees including business management and information technology. Harry has 15 years of international experience ranging from working on hospital projects in Dubai (Middle East) to over £1 Billion hospital projects in the UK. You can benefit from his experience at: www.hospitaldesigntips.com. If there are topics that you would like his advice on, you can get in touch on Harry_Mcque@HospitalDesignTips.com
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July 4th, 2008 at 9:40 am
what is the most important things that we have to be consider in hospital design at the first stage?
July 9th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Hi Musliha,
They say, understanding a question is half the answer. I would say, knowing exactly what you want from the hospital is the most important thing – so a detailed brief from the client to explain to the designers and the builders what kind of design they need to come up with to satisfy the demand. Whether the requirement is for a general hospital with 200 inpatient beds, or a specialist cardiac and cancer centre of excellence with research facilities. That will decide the shape, size, location, departments, build type, patient through-put, return on investment, project cost and programme.
For example look at the following word document by Depertment of Health UK guidance on what aspects the builders and designers should consider while quoting for a job. This will give you a fantastic starting point.
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Procurementandproposals/Publicprivatepartnership/Privatefinanceinitiative/DesigndevelopmentprotocolforPFIschemes/DH_4016496?IdcService=GET_FILE&dID=3758&Rendition=Web
regards,
Harry
July 20th, 2008 at 9:24 am
Dear Mr.Harry McQue,
I am a Biomedical Engineer presently working as Technical Service Manager for a company in UAE , dealing with Medical Laboratory Instrumentation.
I am interested to work with consultencies specialized in Hospital and clinics design. To achieve this I would like to upgrade my self with a suitable course in Hospital design, in medical instruments point of view.
Highly appreciated if You advice me with suitable courses and the institutions.
Regards,
Sajith T.K.
Abbar Medical Group,
Dubai,
U.A.E.
July 21st, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Hi Sajith,
Having worked in the Middle East myself I know that a lot of biomedical engineers are employed in the medical equipment sales and get training from the manufacturers in their chosen speciality. This limits what you can learn.
There are courses around (in the UK) for training on medical equipment such as this one:
http://www.hotcourses.com/uk-courses/Servicing-Medical-Equipment-Advanced-Diploma-Emta-courses/page_pls_user_course_details/16180339//23125403/7935/161662508/1//crs/course-details.htm
However, in my opinion, your best bet to learn a lot about all kind of medical equipment, while getting paid in a full-time job, is to get a job in a general hospital!
Harry
October 25th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
I am intrested in planning of medical equipment for design of the Hospitals. I wanted to know the training centres where this falicily is available so that I would became a Plannar of Medical Equipment/ Consultant.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Hello Mazhar,
Apologies for the late response.
Im afraid there is no so called “medical equipment design manager” courses on offer. But don’t let that put you off.
Normally the entry to this niche market can be via architecture and involvement in a hospital design, or bio-medical degrees offerred by a large number of universities around the world including US and the UK.
To be a medical equipment consultant on a hospital design and construction job would require the person to know about the services requirements and dimensions of a huge number of medical equipment. Have a read of my article on planning imaging rooms and pathology to get a feel for what is expected.
Happy to advise futher. Good luck.
Harry