Hospital Design Tips

Of all the clinical areas in any hospital, X-Ray, CT, and Fluoroscopy need much more planning and co-ordination than any other thing imaginable. This is mostly due to the fact that the equipment used and its implications on the building structure and services is much more complex with the exception of the MRI. We will deal with MRI in another article and will only discuss factors to be considered while designing an X-Ray room, which, in principle will hold for the CT & Fluoroscopy rooms as well.

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Planning Pathology labs including microbiology, biochemistry and haematology should be fairly simple and straight forward. But we know from experience that if careful thought is not given at the design and planning stage, the simplest of things can and most probably will go wrong.

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Building on my previous article on Environment & Sustainability I deemed it fit to post a few thoughts on the use of green and brown roofs and their hugely popular positive contribution to the environment.

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In the UK, PFI (Private Finance Initiative) has generated a renewed interest in hospital design arena. It effectively provides us an opportunity to consider the hospitals as Therapeutic Environments. Hospital design managers like me, believe that expert knowledge has encouraged the development of hospitals that provide settings for promoting patient recovery, healing and well being.

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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.

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When I was young I had to visit the hospital where my father was admitted after a horrific accident. While trying to save a child who suddenly ran across the road, he had a severe road accident. To cut a long story short, my father had to have about 21 operations to repair his broken leg. From that day on, and for a long time to come, I was petrified on the mere sight and smell of all things hospital. Does this sound or feel familiar? I bet it strikes a chord with a great majority of you.

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What has environment and sustainability got to do with hospital design and construction? In-fact a great deal!

Environment and sustainability are not only the 21st century’s new buzz words but have been playing an increasingly bigger and more important role in shaping the world we live in. Businesses are falling over themselves in ranking environment with health and safety and the financial markets around the world have created sustainability indexes to list compliant companies. In this respect hospital design industry is no exception.

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Sooner or later you will have to face the big question. Is your hospital or clinic Disabled person friendly? In fact very few of the so called well planned medical facilities really delve deep in to design considerations directly affecting disabled people.

Generally when someone mentions disabled person, an image of a wheelchair bound person comes to mind, or maybe someone walking with the aid of crutches. But what about a colour blind person? Or a deaf or dumb person? Or a blind person? Hospital administrators must consider the following aspects of disabled person friendliness:

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Designing a hospital is a much more complex and drawn out process than, say, designing a shopping mall or a hotel. To give you an idea of what is involved and the extent of details that have to be encompassed; we will discuss some of the components contributing to the complexity of this process. The design process of a hospital involves all of the following activities but is not necessarily limited to them:

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