hospital space planning design

Acoustics In Hospital Design

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Good acoustic design of buildings is becoming increasingly important, due to the repercussions it has on people’s well-being and health. This reason takes even more weight when it comes to health centers.

Hospitals are very complex buildings with very specific technical requirements. In today’s post, we are going to discuss the importance of acoustics in hospital design and the criteria to follow to achieve an appropriate environment in terms of noise.

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ACOUSTIC QUALITY AS A BENEFIT TO HEALTH

When we consider acoustics in hospital design, it is interesting to think not only about the interior sound quality but also about the impact of sound on the exterior environment closest to the building, since the acoustic characteristics of the urban environment must also be considered and evaluated.

If we apply correct acoustic criteria in the hospital space planning design, we can achieve improvements at different levels.

Improving acoustic quality has been proven to have positive effects on professionals and patients. An adequate sound environment contributes to the decrease in blood pressure, as well as the reduction of pain medication intake of hospital patients while improving the stress level of all occupants of the building.

Sleep quality is also affected, improving considerably by decreasing the sound level in the rooms. Improvements have even been found in school performance, tachycardia or the decrease in premature babies, by improving the acoustic conditions of health centers.

All these aspects positively influence the patients’ feeling of security and general well-being since, having a quieter stay, they feel more comfortable and have easier communication with medical personnel.

In addition, a more pleasant stay translates into a faster recovery for patients, which reduces the time spent in the hospital. This has advantages from a curative point of view and also helps the financial sustainability of the hospital.

ACOUSTICS AS A DESIGN CRITERIA FOR HOSPITALS

Within hospitals, hospital designers & planners have very different areas in terms of the type of occupants and their use of space. For this reason, we will treat the acoustic requirements of each area of ​​the health centers separately.

ACCESS AND CIRCULATION

The access and distribution areas in hospitals are the most open and exposed to the public. Despite this, they should be welcoming and relaxing environments where patients, medical staff and visitors can have relaxed conversations.

The first impression that a hospital offers is very important in the feeling that the patient or professional will receive throughout their stay. Accessing the center through a diaphanous space, well lit and with a moderate sound environment helps to keep your mood in good condition.

From an acoustic point of view, it is important to plan sound-absorbing surfaces on the ceiling and on the walls, so that the voice does not bounce excessively and uncomfortable echoes are generated, increasing the acoustic level.

Let’s think that a hospital is a building where a considerable number of people are concentrated, so the sound level can rise quickly if the building has too hard to finish.

Hospital Design: What Tasks Need To Be Addressed?

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When designing hospitals and other medical facilities, specialists always pay special attention to functionality. Any hospital design should help solve certain problems. Nevertheless, modern designers and architects have repeatedly proved that thoughtful design can combine various nuances.

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Trends in the design of medical facilities

Many experts agree that the modern design of hospitals should move away from established concepts and more closely match the appearance of residential premises.

Thus, there are several key requirements:

  • Strictness and restraint;
  • Comfort;
  • Functionality;

In the first case, it is supposed to create such an external appearance that would combine relative rigor and restraint. Many people are so used to perceiving medical facilities, so do not move away from this.

At the same time, visitors should not feel like patients in the hospital. And therefore it is important to create a favourable atmosphere and comfortable atmosphere. It much better contributes to the recovery of people, which, of course, must be taken into account in your work.

Design concepts of modern medical facilities

In their work, specialists encounter various difficulties, so they have to take into account the direction, specifics of activity and other features of a particular institution. Only in this case is it possible to create the necessary hospital interior that meets the requirements put forward.

Usually, there are several most significant aspects:

  • Free and easy orientation to the clinic spaces;
  • Design of individual chambers;
  • Reduced overall background noise.

Functionality implies a simple and easy orientation in space – each visitor should be able to find the right place without any problems.

The design of the chambers must also correspond to a high aesthetic level. Moreover, this aspect helps to increase the mood in patients, and also acts as a good marketing tool.

One of the most serious tasks is to reduce the overall noise background. To do this, it is necessary to consider the location of office space, as well as to separate the crowded places from the main chambers and doctors’ offices. Not every hospital interior can please such an achievement.

That is why you should always rely on experienced hospital planners in India in the field of design and interior design. They will tell you the best solutions in choosing a colour scheme, zoning, buying building and finishing materials, and will also help get rid of unnecessary and unnecessary expenses.

Clinic design

The design of the clinic is only now beginning to “rehabilitate” after many years of persistent association with frowning, grey, unfriendliness. Unfortunately, the design of clinics before this was largely determined by one principle – a closed type of room with a corridor and separate rooms in a single colour scheme.

To make it so that it is pleasant to visit any clinic both for children and adults. The experts will develop a hospital space planning design for any clinic, both private and budget, reflecting and emphasizing the pleasant details in each room. Colourful design is far from the only thing that can be allowed when creating a unique interior design project for a clinic. For example, if it’s a children’s clinic.

Healthcare Construction: How To Organize Reception Areas For Hospitals And Clinics?

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Reception and waiting areas in health facilities such as hospitals: functions and design indications for the organization of spaces. In the hospitals, healthcare facilities, receptions and waiting areas, in general perform particular function.

Let’s see with which building health criteria to design them.

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Lobby

The lobby is a highly representative space in a healthcare facility. It often serves as a point of contact between the hospital building and the user. It helps to sort the flow of people within healthcare facility premises. The pace houses a series of basic elements like refreshment points, toilets, commercial space etc. But above all of this, it also has a reception and information station.

In particular, the space dedicated to the reception must be identifiable and easily recognizable, it can, therefore, it should be designed by using particular lighting, or colours, materials, and shapes that will make it look distinctive.

From this location, it is important that the accesses to the main routes are easily identifiable, both to allow easier orientation for users and to allow staff to control.

The reception area is well placed in the immediate vicinity of the information desk. This space must be well integrated with the administration offices and also with the waiting areas. It is underlined that it is important to guarantee privacy to patients, who must, therefore, find separate and welcoming environments.

Connective spaces

Through the connective spaces, paths, landings, waiting areas of the elevators, the patient and the visitor enter and move in the structure of the building. The connective, therefore, represents the spaces of directionality and sorting.

Certainly, it is necessary to give orientation and order requirements, but it is also essential to connote these areas in order to communicate domesticity and humanization of the spaces, to promote a good psychological impact.

In the healthcare deign and planning, it will, therefore, be necessary to ensure that the user can find information boards in these areas, seats also with low tables to encourage rest and benches, conversation, green elements and planters, openings to the outside, spaces and elements for communication, a series of furnishing elements and specific finishes suitable for the functions of the spaces.

The excessive uniformity and monotony of long hospital journeys can be mitigated by designing different elements that introduce variations and stimulate attention. All, of course, respecting the minimum passage dimensions.

Waiting areas

In day hospital facilities, waiting areas are often derived from variations and extro-flexions along the connective pathways. In order not to obstruct the flow along the paths, these areas must be separated while maintaining visual contact with the space dedicated to the paths.

When designing parking areas- in the atrium, corridors, joints – and waiting areas – for example in reception areas and for clinics – it is recommended to maintain design unity throughout the hospital.

What Type Of Preparation Should A Hospital Equipment Planner Have, And What Skills Are Required?

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It is highly recommended that people for this position have academic preparation in areas related to medical science, biomedical technology, nursing, administration, personnel management, etc.

Also, excellent capacity for analysis and decision-making is required to be able to face and resolve the different problems that will surely arise on a day-to-day basis.

Somehow it must be a person who has the ability to handle different problems and issues at the same time (multitask)

It can also be very helpful to have previous experience with the management of all types of hospital equipment such as purchases, maintenance, etc.

Important considerations when planning a hospital-

  1. Know the type of services that will be carried out in the hospital or health center: to perform the basic design and the necessary equipment; it will be necessary to know the detail that functions will perform the place.
  2. Offer optimal conditions for the performance of work with efficiency and, above all, with safety. A hospital is not an ordinary place, it does administrative work, prevention, laboratory work in addition to medical work. When planning a hospital, all work should be taken into account.
  3. Offer an internal and external functional environment that respects the hygienic and health needs that are required.

Because of this fact, hospital planning and hospital equipment planners play a crucial role. Since it has a great importance in not only taking care of the patients but also as a major part of both public health and social welfare programs, and in another way it has a great influence in the process of development of an economy.

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Your vision in the short, medium and long term is of vital importance.

On the other hand, skills in interpersonal treatment are required since their work requires being in contact and coordinating the work of personnel from very different areas and hierarchies, inside and outside the institution.

In addition to academic training and personal skills must be a person with experience and knowledge of all types of equipment, supplies, etc., not only in terms of needs and operation but also must be kept informed in terms of durability, performance, requirements, etc. So that at a certain moment it makes the right decision for example before the dilemma of repairing, replacing or acquiring new options.

The best time to hire a hospital equipment planner is when the decision is made to build the hospital or start the remodeling or expansion works. It is the surest way for decisions to be made correctly, and that in case of extensions or remodeling of functioning hospital things are done in an organized and coordinated way so that it does not interfere with daily activities.

In short, it can be said that it is the health care equipment planner who at any time has a better perspective of the general panorama as well as of every detail in particular, with absolutely all its consequences, repercussions or implications.

Importance of Hospital Equipment Planners in Healthcare Industry

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When it comes to establishing the specific department/room in a healthcare center or building a new hospital, medical equipment planners play a vital role to achieve desired results. A healthcare unit requires numerous medical equipment that takes about 30 to 40 percent of the entire project fund which is very high in monetary terms. From a simple stretcher to complex MRI machine, everything has its importance. Designated hospital equipment planners are responsible for managing budget used in buying, exchange or repair of medical equipment and machinery and ensuring to provide best in class medical facilities to improve patient outcome.

Equipment has their own life, and health care equipment planners ensure the maximum utilization of equipment during their lifetime. These professionals follow sequential management activities to ensure the efficient and profitable working of medical equipments. The activities consist of the following steps:

Planning: Planning process helps to gather necessary information which is the basis of actions to be taken. Information revealed in the planning process includes:

  • Needs and benefits of required equipment
  • Available certified technicians
  • Maintenance service and support
  • Environmental support
  • Regulatory compliance

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The planning process helps to make a balance between clinical and technological sector to deliver high-quality medical services. Steps of planning include:

  • Making an audit for existing technology and resources
  • Technology assessment to adopt new technology to get desired results
  • Selecting new technology to replace the old one
  • Setting priorities for acquisition
  • Monitor ongoing progress

Acquisition: Healthcare sector is changing rapidly with the invention of new technology that helps to improve patient outcome. The process is about attaining funds which are used for upgrading and adopting new technology. Designated hospital project consultants in india acquire new technology because of several reasons:

  • To upgrade their services
  • To provide efficient services
  • Improve patient outcome
  • Enhance cost benefits
  • Achieve desired goals
  • To minimize risk

Delivery and Incoming Inspection: A healthcare consulting firm in india inspect new incoming equipment including accessories, manuals, electrical safety, and operations systematically. They also check for possible shipment damage.

Inventory and Documentation: It is an important process which provides information for equipment servicing and management at different stages. Inventory and documentation file consists of the following things:

  • An equipment control number
  • Generic description of an equipment
  • Equipment manufacturer, model, and serial number
  • Owners department and location
  • Purchase invoice
  • Equipment buying cost
  • Seller details like address, contact number
  • Warranty terms and expiry date
  • Details of additional warranty and service contract

Installation and Commissioning: The process is carried out in the presence of hospital designers and planners. They will ensure that particular equipment is installed properly at the right location.

User Training: It is necessary for the end user and working staff to familiar with the functioning and maintenance of installed equipment to avoid malfunctioning. Inappropriate handling of medical equipment can affect patient outcome and increase servicing cost.

Monitoring Equipment: All services provided by the seller should be recorded for monitoring purpose. Do not ignore inspecting machinery when they are covered under warranty.

Maintenance and Replacement: The top hospital consulting firms in india keeps records of all services provided by the seller and condition of the equipment to ensure that it works efficiently. Their goal is to make out maximum utilization of equipments during its lifetime. Once an equipment life is over, they will propose management to replace it with the latest one.

Healthy Business Design: 4 Steps to Expand the Healthcare Business

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Healthy Business Design is the formula designed to develop the business of private health facilities that want to design new health experiences for their patients.

Patients at the center of an ongoing transformation in the world of health and well-being: from patients to people, with their needs and needs. The program allows to change the approach to care, from “to care” to “to care” thanks to design methodologies that will enable:

  • Focus on the objectives
  • Better understand patients
  • Develop effective strategies to attract new ones

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Healthy Business Design can also be applied to networks of medical facilities, multi-specialist studies and single-specialist studies that want to differentiate themselves and represent a fixed point in their territory.

How does Healthy Business Design work?

Healthy Business Design by health care equipment planners is developed in 4 structured steps, designed to achieve concrete results in a concise time:

Understanding customers:

Through individual interviews with the key people of the company and, thanks to a visual representation of the results, experts identify the values that characterize the activity. Not only that, because it analyzes the business model, establishes its objectives and traces the profile of ideal patients. Continue reading →

Building Experiences is the True Healthcare Revolution

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Ours is an ambitious goal: to change the way we understand the relationship with health. We have already talked about our method inspired by design thinking and human-centered design, but the real question we want to answer now is “how do you want to revolutionize the whole healthcare sector?” There is not only one answer, but we have chosen to start from a simple concept: to draw experiences.

Define experiences

We could compare the experience to a journey. It all starts when the desire (or the necessity) begins and ends only once back home. What we live between these two moments will always remain in our memories and will define our expectations for subsequent journeys.

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Let’s think of another example that we touch every day: buy products online. The experience, in this case, begins with the manifestation of a need for a given product, has its peak at the moment when the courier rings at the door and ends only after advising (or advised against) the same product to others.

But what drives hospital space planners to choose a site rather than another are the actions that take place in the middle — the ease of finding what we need, the cheaper price, the best reviews, the fastest courier and so on. These micro-moments define whether our experience is to be repeated or just forgotten.

Building valuable experiences: our tools

Imagine applying this definition of expertise to patients in a clinic. How can we transform it to make it memorable? First, we must map it and fully understand the mechanisms that make it work.

To achieve this, we use a handy tool, the patient journey map. It is a visual representation of the actions performed by patients using a given healthcare service.

Then we identify the obstacles or development opportunities for each of these steps. In the same way, we build step by step the actions that the work team (doctors, nurses, and support staff) could undertake to improve the patient’s experience. By this method, we can provide our customers with a precise picture of the actions necessary to transform their business model in a genuinely human-centered way.

Not only. This approach allows us to respond to patients’ expectations, to involve them more, to make them feel unique and protected, and to increase their sense of satisfaction. In other words, making their experience memorable means turning them into ambassadors.

The real revolution done by hospital planners in India, the one that changes the approach to the Health system, is linked to a sixth issue that, in the light of what has been said, becomes fundamental and is the one that will make the difference in a value system based on value: it is the Relationship between patients, their families, and health professionals. The relationship must also be structured within the care pathways and how the latter must be analyzed and evaluated.

Do you want to transform the experience of your patients? Contact us, and we will work together to achieve your business goals.

Steps to planning of medical equipment

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Currently establishing a hospital, a clinic or a health center represents a great challenge, whether it is a public or private institution, and it is clear that the hospital demand is higher than the supply that exists today in many parts of the world. That is why, from the beginning, it must be planned, designed, built and equipped quickly and efficiently in order to start operations as soon as possible and without setbacks. Success, therefore, depends, among other factors, on the balance and combination achieved in the approach to the needs and experience of patients, the use of state-of-the-art technology, and adherence to budgets and delivery times of the different stages of construction and equipment.

And once the hospital is finished and already in operation, it is not enough to have the best design, the most advanced technology, and the most renowned doctors so that it works as it should be. For this purpose, hospital planning and administration are also of vital importance, since a modern hospital plays important roles not only in the care of its patients, but is also a major part of both public health and social welfare programs, and of some way also has great influence on the process of development of the economy.

Do you know how to consider hospital electrical installations in the planning of medical equipment for your health center?

The health care equipment planners plays a vital role in planning of medical equipment for the successful renovation of a hospital space. It is done in order to optimize the care provided to their patients at the lowest possible cost.

Best Services of hospital designers & planners

The key to the successful design and planning of the process of building a new space in a health center, regardless of its size, includes the incorporation of appropriate medical technology along with consideration of the following factors:

  • The strategic vision of the organization.
  • Trends in medical equipment technology.
  • Operational requirements and clinical needs.
  • Patient and staff safety.

Taking this into account, the following are the three milestones of the planning of medical teams during the construction phase of health facilities:

Preliminary evaluation of the budget for financial approval

The medical equipment planner determines a budget figure based on spatial planning, preliminary discussion and project expectations. This data is incorporated into the survey and visual drawings of the project and presented appropriately to the hospital center for approval.

Delivery of design documents

Once the management approval has been obtained, the list of medical equipment to be installed must be presented and discussed with the architectural design and engineering departments.

This process is not always so simple since it can happen that the coordination of designs is delayed in the decision-making process in a determined medical team.

It is in this phase where hospital planners and medical equipment consultants plays a fundamental role in providing detailed information to the project management on the needs and potential electrical risks of the equipment to be installed, as well as observations to be taken into consideration at the time of construction.

Final equipment selection and closure of the planning

After the technical planning phase, an open meeting is held in which all the parties present discuss any unfinished business and select the medical teams, taking into account the installation requirements and their benefits.

The participation of engineers and architects specialized in hospital infrastructure is fundamental for the success of the project, since these are the technical support of the project management for making decisions regarding profitability and satisfaction of operational objectives for the health center.

Architecture for Health: Buildings that Heal

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“The whole is better than the amount of its portions”; thus Aristotle abridged the bases of holism. It is about examining and considerate the systems as a combined and worldwide set that is, in short, going to establish the behavior of its diverse parts. But he does not believe that this “everything” is only a sum of its parts, but that the synergies between them achieve a much more complex system.

As such, architecture can, therefore, be integrated into a holistic system that tries to respond to different needs of the human being from different perspectives; but today, we want to highlight the concrete relationship of hospital architecture with holistic architecture. In this sense and from the point of view of psychology, Abraham Maslow already spoke of the satisfaction of the needs of his pyramid (physiological, security, social, recognition and self-realization) to achieve complete health, from the point of view of mental, emotional, physical and spiritual view.

Currently, medicine tends to be a holistic discipline, according to which the individual should be treated as a whole and provided with comprehensive health care related to physiology, biochemistry, nutrition, exercise, social relationships and also the habitat. Therefore, today, architecturally speaking, we tend to subscribe to this holistic commitment to health, seeking better visual and spatial quality and greater readability of hospital buildings that may be beneficial for patients.

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Healthcare architecture firms in India firmly trust that curing is possible, in part, through space. To attain an adequate space, we take into account the machinery that will be available, and we always seek the integration of natural light, chromatic and natural and green spaces, both inside the building and around it. The goal is always to improve user comfort. A good sanitary building is one in which the user feels that he is receiving the necessary care without perceiving that he is in a sanitary building”.

Once inside, the chromatic game that welcomes the patient will accompany him through the clinic, identifying each color with a specialty.

For us, scale, light or ventilation are basic elements, but in the well-being of a patient comfort and beauty are also fundamental. For a hospital to have the ability to heal it must be properly organized in architectural terms, but also, as we mentioned before, to be comfortable and to overcome the feeling of confinement that these buildings often cause.

From students, young aspiring architects are intimidated by their teachers when dealing with complex issues, such as prisons, social housing, and hospitals. More seductive are museums, theaters, and cultural centers, where the “artist” can give free rein to their creativity.

Buildings related to health, on the other hand, are among the most complex and technified, since their facilities, networks, special equipment, and spatial relationships must respond to precise requirements and to a host of restrictions that limit, or at least relegate to the background, the expressive value of the work.

However, the rejection that provokes this type of hospital space planning design rests fundamentally on the fear of the unknown and on simple prejudice. Beauty, in this case, is in the right way to respond to the problem; in contributing to the recovery of the patient.

On the other hand, it has been the same hospital architecture that has forgotten its user, in its human dimension, allowing machinist efficiency and procedural asepsis, end up eclipsing those fundamental aspects in the care of a patient, as is its assessment as an individual.