Hospital Designing
Planning the Design and Construction of Healthcare facilities is a very specialised field that has begun getting its due only in the last few years in India. This is because we have now come to realize the important role the design and planning of the hospital plays in healing the patient. The aim of an architect is to ensure that their design satisfies the people living and functioning in the space they design. In a hospital this includes the Doctors, Nurses, Staff and of course the Patient. The design of a hospital must meet all their requirements. It is therefore the Architect’s duty and responsibility to design accordingly.
How Accreditation brought in change to the field of Hospital Design
The scenario began to change with the advent of Healthcare Accreditations like the NABH & JCI and Consultants like us, specialising in the field. Vast experience in the area of Quality Accreditation helped us understand the requirement for specific infrastructure to meet the NABH & JCI requirements and that looking into these aspects right from the healthcare facility planning and layout stage was not just important but mandatory.
Right from designing the widths of the staircases and corridors, planning the layouts of areas like the Operation Theatres and Critical Care Units, to providing the required space between Beds in the Wards and even locating the Nursing Stations etc., we saw how almost all areas of the Hospital needed to be designed with regard to meeting the Patient Safety requirements of the Accreditation Standards.
Improving Patient Outcomes
As Hospital Architects and Designers our role is to help improve patient outcomes at the Hospital by preventing spread of infections and being able to send patients home faster. We need to ensure through our Hospital Design that there is proper infection control through better Planning & Layout of the Facility ensuring better Patient & Staff Flow and controlled air movement.
In addition to Patient Safety, other aspects, as Hospital Planners and Designers we help make all areas of the Hospital Accessible and Patient Friendly, a very important contributory factor in improving outcomes.
Not all designs are appropriate for a hospital. Similarly, you can’t apply a specific designing idea to a building constructed for a different purpose. Whether you are going to construct a new hospital or thinking about the renovation, there must be full time preparation about it. Complete the basic homework about the hospital Building Plan , appropriateness and investment required. Also consider the goals and targets when considering hospital designs.
In order to have a big hospital with all basic facilities, it is required to focus on the appropriate designing and planning. It has been mentioned above that appropriateness of the designs must be considered whenever thinking about the mega projects. Renovation, construction or expansion of a hospital always depends on your plans and targets. Search the extraordinary plans being used in the healthcare industry in order to find the right designing approach.
Privacy at hospital is one of the most important things. Never ignore the factor of privacy when designing a plan for hospital. The firm designing a building, layout or plan for your hospital must take care about the privacy. You are suggested to take care of the important things such as operation theatres, surgery rooms and laboratories where high privacy is required for better performance. Designers must include the factor of privacy in the hospital designing and planning
It is not necessary to complete the hospital designing at once. Don’t you have time or money for complete designing? Don’t be worried about it. Just focus on the designing phases. Most of the designing firms recommend designing of a hospital in different phases. In this way, the management can easily control the issues related to time and finance. You need to be more careful about the completeness of designing. The designing must be completed once started that’s why dividing it in different phases is very useful.
