Health Infrastructure Planning: Identifying Project Requirements

The process of creating optimal hygienic conditions in medical institutions is determined by the peculiarities of land planning and development, arrangement and internal planning of buildings, their sanitary and technical improvement, as well as the sanitary condition during operation.

In planning a hospital, getting accurate data is crucial. There are no right solutions for everything and only from a deep understanding of the context, demographics, population served, the necessary medical disciplines or the already existing facilities of the environment, will it be possible to predict and develop an adequate functional program.

Different realities need different hospitals. The design of a centre in a rural environment or in a large urban agglomeration involves different issues, and designing for different countries will involve knowing the different realities of the local context.

In each country, it is possible to identify those common diseases or the most necessary treatments, which will help us plan hospitals that focus on the most serious local health challenges.

The architecture and planning of a hospital are of crucial long-term importance for proper patient care and functionality. They form the basis for optimal work processes and, in turn, minimize the workload of the hospital staff.

Hygiene, flexible work options and cost optimization play an important role in the design of workplaces, but they are not the only factors that play a role: patient and staff satisfaction is also key.

Arrangement and organization of treatment and prevention facilities, in accordance with hygienic requirements, make it possible to:

  • Create the best environmental conditions for patients;
  • Contribute to the introduction of treatment and protection regime;
  • Prevent the occurrence of nosocomial infections;
  • Facilitate the medical work of medical staff;
  • Promote the fastest recovery of patients and provide optimal conditions for the activities of health professionals.

After all, without proper hygienic conditions, therapeutic actions are powerless. As science and technology, including medicine, medical technology, and sanitary technology, are constantly being improved, deepened, and scientifically developed, hospital buildings are constantly being rebuilt and completed.

Investment costs for a hospital are unpredictably high. In rational business planning and economic field program, operating and personnel costs should be taken into consideration first, and all this could be done with the help of hospital consultants in Delhi NCR.

In the first phase of business planning, the builder, architects, expert planners and the hospital administration should meet together in order to minimize incorrect investment decisions and unfavorable operating expenses.

It is important that the architects cooperate with the administration and specialist engineers (hospital planners, hygienists) in dissertation.

The basis of business planning consists of equipment planning for construction, form, installation and construction system, medical technical requirements and equipment.

Hospitals are institutions that provide treatment and care for patients with severe and chronic complaints. Hospitals differ in the type, scope, area of ​​expertise and the size of the treatment equipment.

While hospitals were planned as medical surgical institutions in the past, it is emphasized that the institutions are made suitable for human beings with the new trend today, all thanks to healthcare management consulting in India.

5 Best Practices for Patient Safety

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Every year in India, thousands of patients die due to avoidable hospital errors and lack of safety measure. Safety in hospital building design can improve team performance and avoid errors by limiting harm and reducing the likeliness of mistakes.

Here is the list of 5 factors that top health organisations implement to achieve the safety goal for patients.

1. Restraint infection spread 

The practice of washing and sanitise hands before contacting patients is a good practice to restrict the transfer of virus and bacteria. According to the health care association data, infections are the most common serious hospital complication that causes some serious health issue to patients.

Thus, healthcare providers should clean their hands before and after contacting patient contact so that they can protect themselves as well as their patients from infections.

2. Correct Patient Identification 

Recording patients’ correct information confirmed that he/she receives the service or procedure can prevent various harmful events like administering the wrong medication or blood product to a patient. Thus, the patient information should be collected accurately.

3. Use Medicine Carefully

The availability of the enormous number of prescription drugs in the market can cause medical errors in any medical facilities and cause some serious consequences. To avoid such errors, label all the drugs and syringes carefully.

While labelling the drugs, make sure that any medicine doesn’t conflict with the current ones. Also, take some extra precautions with the patient on the blood thinner.

4. Customise hospital discharges 

Customising easy to follow plans for patients like medication routine, the record of essential medicines and data of patients before discharge. Such steps before discharging patient can reduce the potentially preventable readmissions up to 30 per cent. 

5. Avoid surgical mistakes  

Under the pressure of operation, the operating room can become a chaotic environment if there is a miscommunication during the procedure. Plus, physical fatigue and other negligence can put disaster for patients in the operating room.

Whatever the cause of mistakes, it can leave patients with serious injuries that he/she may deal with for the rest of their life. Using the periodic timeouts strategy is a great way to avoid these mistakes. 

The timeout break gives enough time to surgeons to revise their operating procedures and allow staff to consider all pieces of equipment.

Top 6 Elements Of A Perfect Hospital Layout

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Designing an advanced and modernised hospital layout needs a well-maintained plan. However, there are some complicated situations where you find it difficult to select the right layout for the hospital.

Nowadays, a perfect hospital design plan addresses many functions to the patients, family and staff. To provide such functions, one should consider the following factors before designing the layout of the hospital.

1. Aesthetic Design

A good hospital design should exhibit both the region and the visual and cultural ideology of the institution. Many hospitals offer the reference elements of hospitality design like spacious and transparent lobbies, covered drop-offs with valet parking and natural materials that provoke a sense of satisfaction.

Besides, adding soft sound and Art can play a key role in conceiving a harmonious and aesthetic environment for the patients.

2. Car Parking Facilities

A well-design space for parking affects the entire workforce and patient’s arrival. Almost 60% of patients use their vehicle to travel to the hospital. Also, the parking facilities help the clinicians, administrative staff, support services and volunteers who work late at night in the hospital.

3. Special Waiting Room

The waiting room in the hospital is one of the crucial that comfort and support the patient’s family. Also, those patients who don’t have a family can spend some private time there as well. A well-managed seating arrangement ensuring a line of sight for information and easy access to restrooms improves the experience.

4. Gracious Clinical Environment

A well designed clinical space can benefit both the patient and staff. A well maintains clinical area is as important as lobbies and waiting areas. Consider procedure rooms and suites where patients are assured, and blood-draw stations that promote natural daylight and positive distractions in art, material palette and views. Such areas are crucial to creating a tranquil and healing environment.

5. Healthy Surrounding 

A healthy surrounding inside the hospital can increase the recovery and healing rate of patients. Designing with red list free materials provides filter and clean air that offering access to outside with operable windows create a healthy surrounding in the hospital premises.

6. Personalization Option

The choice of personalisation goes a long way toward creating a comfortable experience for patients. Besides, it helps the patients and their family to spend a better time together. Giving personalise space to patients like changing room colours, private or semi-private room for the infusion with customising overhead music or artwork could be a great way to comfort patients.

Designing the layout of the hospital is a complex process and need a proper requires proper planning that creates a positive atmosphere in the hospital. These 6 factors have the power to ensure a pleasant visit for patients and their families, faster healing and improved outcomes.

Quality Accreditation is making Hospital care better

In the globalized world, the healthcare industry is not only impacted by corporate growth but various other forces like business competition, medical tourism, medical insurance, patient expectations, etc. Because of this, the quality of healthcare at hospitals is affected. Quality of care is one of the prominent agendas of any health policy. This has led to the establishment of national and international regulating bodies that offer accreditation to hospitals. Hospital Accreditation is a process by which an organization like a hospital, clinic, and other healthcare services, are assessed on a set of predetermined standards.

NABH (National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers) is a healthcare governing body in India that ensures quality healthcare and peerless patient experience and satisfaction at hospitals through its regulations. JCI(Joint Commission International) is an independent, not-for-profit organization that evaluates and accredits healthcare organizations in all countries of the world, except United States. Both NABH and JCI accreditations aim to improve the quality of care through diverse approaches which are either mandated by the government, voluntary or initiated by independent agencies.

Accreditation and Improvement in quality of hospital care 

The following points show how accreditation helps in improving the quality of health care.

a) Accreditation ensures better patient care:

As we know, the future of healthcare is aimed at more efficient and high-quality healthcare. Surveys have shown that accreditation emphasizes better patient satisfaction scores. When the result is a higher patient satisfaction score, it entails profit and is beneficial to all stakeholders, patients, and employees. Patients are the biggest beneficiaries. Accreditation generates high quality of care and patient safety. The patients get services from authorized medical staff. The rights of patients are admired and protected. Patient satisfaction is regularly evaluated. 

b) Accreditation to a Hospital stimulates continuous improvement.

It enables hospitals in demonstrating a commitment to quality care. It uplifts community confidence in the services provided by the hospital. It also provides an opportunity for the healthcare unit to benchmark with the best. Hospitals tend to naturally put in the effort, invest in better technology, and raise the bar for better patient care.

c) Accreditation provides a sense of trust in legal circles:

Accreditation provides an objective system of jury empanelment by insurance-vendors and other Third Parties. This helps in obtaining better third-party insurance vendor support or receiving more backing from stakeholders to enhance infrastructure. Accreditation provides access to reliable, authentic and certified information on facilities, infrastructure, and level of care.

d) Accreditation improves working environments for staff:

The better the healthcare organization in regards to infrastructure, cleanliness, faster services, and good maintenance of healthcare equipment, the easier it is for staff to manage patient data and patient care effectively. The patients get services from authorized medical staff. It leads to improved productivity, better staff performance, and higher chances of greater patient satisfaction.

e) Accreditation maintains the hospital image:

Accreditation is an ongoing process that takes years to achieve. This means the hospital must show credibility in its services, must be responsive to improvements being suggested, must display full transparency in communication to staff and stakeholders, and must have the hunger to innovate for better patient care. This improved care quality would automatically facilitate lesser or no patient complaints and more patient and stakeholders satisfaction and would make the hospital most preferred among the patients, thereby improving the hospital’s image.

All in all, accreditation improves the overall professional development of Clinicians and Paramedical staff and provides leadership for quality improvement within medicine and nursing.

Top 4 Healthcare Design Trends That Will Shape Medical Planning In 2021:

Top 4 Healthcare design trends that will shape Medical planning in 2021:

In 2021, as we all know, the healthcare industry is booming at a rapid rate. It is one of the fastest-growing sectors of our economy with no signs of a downturn. As the population continues to rise, healthcare facilities are looking to expand, grow and keep up with the rising number of people coming through their doors.

The healthcare industry is transforming through innovations and technology.  Rethinking what a perfect healthcare design to improve the experiences and comfort for the patients and caregivers who occupy those areas.

The latest design trends in healthcare are focused largely on comfort and mollifying anxieties, as well as thematic designs, different layouts, and ease of use.

Following are the four biggest trends that are hoped to shape healthcare and medical design in 2021.

1. Growing Outpatient Care Volumes

Advancements in medical care are helping more and more individuals to seek care in a healthier environment. We are living in a time in which outpatient facilities are extremely important. These are places in the healthcare spaces where patients can go for tests or procedures without needing to stay overnight in the hospitals. Outpatient facilities must also be considered under comfort and design aesthetics. 

Advancements in patient reception and tracking will create new types of outpatient treatment spaces. Integration with telemedicine concepts will lead to smart-growth within the ambulatory network, which will help to reduce the physical visit volume. Moreover, design teams will need to consider elements of choice and personalized environments with these facilities as well, given the growing visit volume and importance to the system’s overall business model. Outpatient care will have a substantial need for design re-thinking.

2. Healthcare will be omnipresent and streamlined

Healthcare will become more and more ubiquitous and omnipresent. It will become more active in patient’s lives yet less noticeable all around. Appointments will become more frequent, but quicker and more efficient, with fewer wait times.

Healthcare design will play a major role in this transformation. Patients will have access to new gadgets and technology that will monitor health indicators. Designers will need to build these devices so they blend naturally with the environment.

Hospitals will play a lesser role while the individual patient and personalized care will become more prominent. Telemedicine, the remote delivery of healthcare services, will become more common. Designers will need to adapt themselves and innovate beyond physical spaces and into the digital sphere.

The coming year will likely continue the spectacular technological process of the proceeding twenty years but at an accelerated rate. Medical facilities will require designs that are more fluid, open, natural, and will provide the Zen environment. These facilities will also be integrated into the world effortlessly but will require elegant designs. Technology will continue to be a disruptor and designers will need to shake hands with these new technologies.

3. The future of our healthcare industry is healthcare on-demand

Tele-health has been an emerging parts of healthcare, but the pandemic fast-tracked its process. Tele-health will take hold of the major portion of the health industry because of the comfort people will feel with in-person visits to their GP. 

Healthcare companies and health insurers will have to grapple with this new ecosystem, which will include the geographical challenges of serving remote communities. The Healthcare ecosystem will experience new technologies and new platform solutions in tele-health that will deliver healthcare remotely. The combination of tele-health with remote care by smart devices like smart watches, mobile phones, combined with the power of Iot will start redefining the healthcare ecosystem. The healthcare of the future will be a big shift from the current model that we all are very comfortable with.

The patients will not prefer to wait for an appointment or be kept in a waiting room to see a doctor. This new generation will desire healthcare on-demand.

4. The experience of receiving healthcare will be more pleasing.

Healthcare facilities of the future will engage patients more actively. No longer will patients be told to sit in a cold room and wait to get their treatment. Healthcare environments will become more open, universal, and holistic. There will be separate areas for patients according to their requirements.

The space of a medical facility will become easier to navigate and will induce feelings of welcoming and calm. Landscapes and plants will be further put into the design of hospitals to provide patients with a feeling of being in touch with nature and the outdoors. The designers should try to develop a storyline and an experience that resonates with patients. Themed designs will gain popularity for healthcare spaces. The look and feel of a doctor’s office or hospital space equally contributes to a patient’s wellbeing, and themed designs will help to achieve this.

Patient Satisfaction: An Important Element Of Your Healthcare Center

In the health sector, different methodological approaches (both quantitative and qualitative) are used to identify the aspects of health care that are most important to patients.

Nowadays, the application of the concept of quality to health services is gaining more and more importance.

However, implementing a system for its management is not an easy task and requires a cultural change in the organization that involves all the actors of the institution in order to satisfy the needs and preferences of patients.

The large population of our country requires health services to be at a level that can meet the needs. Those concerned in the health sector must fully fulfill their responsibilities.

In every sector, quality is the most basic condition for customer satisfaction. Considering the place of quality in the health sector, we can say that it represents a more important and more imperative characteristic than other sectors.

Because the sector, which refers to the area where human life is in question, has been considered by our civilization to be even more important than the existence of the state.

It is revealed that one of the basic building blocks of satisfaction in hospitals and healthcare sector is hygiene. The hygienic and modern structure of the hospitals is a fundamental factor that makes the patients feel safe.

What the Hospital Administration Should Do?

Thefirst step of satisfaction is the adoption of valuing people, especiallyby those who serve in the health sector, and making it a corporate culture. However, there are different factors that need to be done in order to ensure the quality of the service provided to people.

For example, all medical devices that need to be used in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases must be found and used in hospitals. The hospital staff mustfollow the technological inventory developing in the health sector and have a flexibility that can focus on innovations.

In this regard, it is necessary to establish a unit within the hospital and to find solutions to people’s problems with R&D activities.

The relationship with patients and their families, locating and reducing errors, working as a team, involving everyone, feeling part of an organization that needs us and that is moving towards the new changes that the system and the world need, are the essence of the culture of quality, and this is why, we suggest you to turn to top healthcare consulting firms in India.

In addition, a business partnership with a good supplier or manufacturer is an important step to reduce the workload of the hospital management in the provision of healthy, high-quality medical devices that are beneficial to people.

The hygiene of the hospital, the positive communication of the staff with the patient, the doctors conveying enough information to the patients, although it is determined as satisfactory points, the hospital’s continuous renewal and adaptation to the developing health opportunities, and the competition due to the increasing service supply in the sector is needed.

The hospital administration should follow a human-oriented strategy in this regard and continue its development and change with an innovative perspective, and this can be done with the help of hospital management consulting company.

4 Activities That Promote Profitability In A Hospital

If you do not have an adequate financial strategy, sooner or later you will have problems fulfilling your mission and strategic objectives.

No matter what its mission is, whether it is non-profit or for-profit, whether it is publicly or privately owned, every hospital will benefit from an adequate financial strategy that supports its mission.

Profitability is the goal of every business, and hospitals are no exception. In a market as competitive as healthcare, it is difficult to keep all the activities carried out within a hospital institution profitable.

Here are 4 activities that promote the profitability of a hospital:

1. Innovate services to increase their market share

The decision to enter a new specialty to attract a market or increase its market share is a decision that must respond to an arduous investigation that provides information on the needs of the locality that serves the institution, as that would considerably increase your success rate and income.

The hospital must analyze the health trends of the population, with demographic data on possible chronic diseases that may occur and with statistics that help favor one specialty or another.

2. Plan your operation around occupancy to control costs

Today’s business intelligence offers the necessary visibility to make decisions in support of resource planning by providing occupancy statistical data over time periods, to make forecasts or to plan the personnel to be assigned according to the flow presented by area and/or days of the week.

When each medical director and each administrative director coordinate to forecast and plan staff, many savings and awareness are achieved in staff management.

3. Reduce warehouse costs by working with your supply chain and your doctors:

There is technology that enables data capture at all points in the supply chain, and sharing the information generated at these points with key people will allow the transformation of this into usable data for decision making, making it an asset of the hospital business.

An excellent practice to reduce costs is to identify the costs of the material used in the procedures, compare them with the national standards and share that information with the doctors to participate in the control of costs.

4. Subrogate some services:

On some occasions, as a consequence of all the operational needs of a hospital, it is easy to lose focus and have money leaks when performing activities outside the direct responsibilities of a hospital, which consist of providing care and patient services.

With this in mind, it is recommended to subrogate certain services such as cleaning, laundry, cafeteria and laboratory services, since when managed by third parties, significant savings are generated.

Top hospital consulting firms in India can help health systems make the right decisions about using competition as a tool to provide access to high-quality and effective health care.

Hospital management consulting company can deliver noticeable performance gains by helping healthcare organizations transform their fragmented activities and evolve them into integrated ecosystems of providers, customers and researchers who can interact with patients, caregivers and others in an individualized manner.

Chronic Diseases And Innovation: Where Are We?

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The care provided for the management of chronic diseases is one of the areas with the most potential and need for innovation, an area in which minimal changes can significantly impact the costs of care.

One of the needs that are solved with the use of telemedicine apart from improving adherence to medications and providing better control and monitoring of patients without filling the waiting rooms is the resolution of accessibility problems to primary care.

In the same way, adding to the process practices that involve the use of remote technology can help reduce transportation costs by saving the patient hours of travel.

To guarantee adequate control and monitoring of patients, as well as accessibility to services, it is necessary to innovate and solve current needs with respect to the metrics used. Patient-centered medicine encourages physicians to make recommendations based on the unique circumstances of the patient.

The need to reorganize the health system has become increasingly pressing, to facilitate prevention, make the disease milder, and ensure assistance over a long period.

The reorganization of the management of chronic diseases will affect everyone: from patients to their families, from the nurse to the general practitioner, from the specialist to the association which, among other things, offers assistance to the patient.

The care needs of people suffering from chronic diseases are complex because they involve social and economic factors linked to the advancing age of the patient, but also because of a clinical picture complicated by the presence of multiple pathologies which occur simultaneously.

The use of multiple drugs and non-specific treatments, due to the often unavailable therapies, to which is added the long duration of the treatment, can give rise to adverse reactions that add to the already difficult health conditions of the person being treated, and here to solve this problem you need the help of hospital management consulting companies.

Through the sharing of clinical data, digital healthcare today has the opportunity to optimize the care path, allowing effective and personalized management of the chronically ill.

A computerized file would also serve to reduce errors, because any variation from the suggested treatment would be reported and recorded with an appropriate notation.

If telemedicine really spread, care could be decentralized, avoiding unnecessary costs and guaranteeing multidisciplinarity.

According to the providers of hospital consultancy services in India, telemedicine may not always affect the outcome of a chronic disease, but it can help reorganize the chronic disease management system, making it more effective and efficient.

Telemedicine could therefore give a strong impulse to the possibility of managing chronic patients from home, avoiding errors, favoring the comparison between several specialists, following the patient regularly and improving his adherence to therapy.

On the other hand, however, the system collides with a population of sick people who are not yet ready to embrace this technology, also for technical reasons, linked to the lack of access to the internet or the inability to use modern devices by very elderly people.This situation will be healed over time.

The culture of technological innovation must start from the bottom and brings together an enormous sphere of professionalism, of which the last piece is the patient.

Planning And Designing In Healthcare: How Is It Beneficial?

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Without a doubt, one of the sectors with the most growth and constant evolution is health. Our population requires hospitals with high capacity in terms of health care, this includes not only the health professional, but also the equipment and infrastructure of these institutions.

With these three pillars, accompanied by validated processes for safe and efficient care, hospitals will be able to offer competitive advantages that distinguish them as what they should be; a safe and reliable place for diagnoses and treatments for prevention and health care.

While many patients seem not to have in mind that a hospital is a company with services and clients, there are many considerations that prevent these three pillars from being strong enough to reach the desired goal; the profitability of the business and the safety of patients and health professionals.

One of them, infrastructure, tends to be the most painful, as a structure with shaky foundations can bring down an entire business and in health this is no exception.

The Hospital Architecture, or better known as one of the branches of architecture focused on the planning, management and execution of architectural projects in the field of health, it is one of the most relevant factors related to profitability and safety in health units, since even the minimum mistake can cost you a lot of money.

Next, we address key benefits that Hospital Architecture offers for the health sector, and above all how it can be used by both entrepreneurs and hospital groups for the benefit of their investment:

1. Planning with a Medium-Long-Term Projection

Planning for the short-medium term in hospital matters is very important, since there are not always enough resources to drive a project 100%. In this case, the hospital architecture can consider the basis of any health project to be complemented later by other areas and services.

From the beginning, it is important that both the client and the expert in facility planning and design in healthcare know very well where they want to go, which includes possible equipment to be incorporated in the near future, or what new business ideas are available to offer services based on possible trends in the market.

2. Regulations and Safety

It is not the same to build a commercial building to build a hospital, and for this reason it is vital to consider a provider with experience in health before starting to project.

As we already know, it is necessary to have special permits (in addition to construction) to be able to venture into a health project, which requires experts on the subject to consider even the smallest detail in terms of what is established by the regulatory authorities.

Let us remember that regulations are one thing and security is another, so we consider that regulations will often lack key factors, or a detailed definition, that can ensure the good work of our units, but even more important, that everything flows safely and profitably for the good of all.

A professional who have pursued healthcare facility design course will be able to offer services that promote safety in all pillars of health care for the entire population.

This not only ensures better services, it also contributes towards profitability through the reduction/elimination of rework, as well as the reduction of budgets for maintenance of the facilities.

Creating Smart Spaces With Hospital Architecture

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Over the years, a wide variety of research has been carried out that shows that architecture in the hospital environment has a great effect within the healing process and improvement of the patient’s well-being.

It has also been shown that there is a connection in terms of stress reduction, both of the personnel working within the hospital, and of the patients, with respect to the spaces and physical architectural environments of said hospital facilities.

Currently, the hospital industry, led by architects and engineers, must do everything possible to adapt to a global phenomenon that is advancing at accelerated steps; the tech.

Day by day, technology has been the factor responsible for causing great changes within the environments in the hospital and in the medical services that it is responsible for offering to society.

Advances such as new surgical techniques, many of them currently carried out by automated machines (robots), intelligent spaces, and optimal interiors for work development, and also to be able to provide an optimal stay to patients within hospitals, has radically changed the hospital industry.

In the same way, thanks to the design and maintenance of the infrastructure, it is possible to reduce infections and avoid complications in patients which are inside the hospital.

“Healthy infrastructure, equal to happy patients”, according to an investigation, in which infection control is placed as one of the main factors or trends in the health sector and the industries in charge of hospital architecture.

The issue of infection control is considered as one of the most handled up to now and ranks as one of the most worrying issues in the hospital environment, as it refers to the control of intra-hospital infections.

The hospital must be a building to cure, however, in a hospital environment there are many pathogenic microorganisms that are transmitted through the air and constitute the main means of transmitting infections to the users of these establishments.

And this is why healthcare facility planning and design courses serves as a great tool in hospital architecture.

Thanks to the advancement of technology within the hospital environment, a well-known and extremely important concept for engineers, architects, and especially for hospitals has been developed for a few years; smart hospitals.

With this they refer to the different types of technological advances and architectural methods that are developed in order to achieve an improvement in the quality of care provided to the patient and how the different activities carried out by the medical professional and the patient are facilitated and optimized.

So, taking into account the aforementioned, it can be emphasized and concluded that the creation of intelligent hospitals is of great importance for architects and engineers in these times, and to most equipment and centers.