The construction of a property starts from a necessity. This premise becomes more evident when buildings seek the provision of services, as is the case of a hospital.
To build a medical center there are countless rules and guidelines to make it a safe, comfortable and efficient place. The construction process of a hospital is complex from the beginning to the end.
The interdisciplinary team that builds it is made up of engineers, architects, technicians and, of course, doctors- the future ‘home owners’. To build a hospital, you have to think about the services that will be offered and the kind of patients that will be treated.
This is part of the Functional Medical Program, a hospital construction and management system. The more services the medical unit provides, each space will require technical specifications for its construction.
From the fact that health is a public service, the quality of the services will be guaranteed through the correct interrelation of the different areas, the product of a good structural design.
Barrier-free hospitals
The concept encompasses construction, management and administration issues. In order for a medical center to have no barriers, its accessibility, patient mobilization, footage of the waiting room, etc. must be considered.
A barrier-free hospital has four characteristics: safety, ecology, accessibility, and intelligence. Medical centers are considered smart when functions such as biological, physical and operational security are automated.
The air conditioning of spaces, for example, is a fundamental aspect that must be considered in hospital space planning designs.
Now, medical units are modular, so they can be adapted to the terrain in which they are going to be built. Gone are the hospitals with massive baseboards, enameled walls, and dark corridors. Today, they have large hallways, natural lighting and systematized doors.
The accessibility is another important point. Along with construction, it is necessary to think about the access routes to get there and, in the design of the sanitation and wiring systems of the health home.
The growth perspective must not be ignored. It is recommended that between 35% and 40% of the land be planned for the creation of green areas such as gardens and opportunities for growth.
Design and projection
Expanding a hospital- which did not plan its growth from the beginning – is more expensive than building a new one. Although the constructive trend is to go upwards, hospitals are a special case. It is possible to evacuate more floors as long as the interrelation of areas is maintained.
You cannot have an Emergency on the ground floor and the Intensive Care Unit on the fifth floor. This has a negative effect on efficiency.
Hospital designs and hospital space planners have evolved. Before, the ‘herringbone’ structure was based on a long corridor with choppy circulations. The trend lasted for years, until ‘verticalization’ was incorporated into medical units.
Communication between areas is a transversal axis for the design of the hospital expansion. If this factor is not taken into account, more patient traffic is generated in the corridors and, in some cases, customers can get lost.
The expansion involves an analysis of the care process: the entry of the patient, their care and departure.
For this reason, the doctor is the right hand of the builder, since it is he who knows in detail the interrelationships of units. Achieving the correct flow of patients is the challenge for contractors. This saves lives and saves financial and human resources.